An Ambassadorial View of some current issues in the Middle East

Nicholas Hopton is a senior British diplomat. Until September 2021 he was Her Majesty's Ambassador to Libya and has recently been working on Afghanistan issues at the FCDO in London. Previously he was FCO Director for EU External and Security, leading the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the future security partnership with the EU after BREXIT.

Nicholas joined the FCO in 1989 and has also served as Ambassador to Iran, Qatar and Yemen and at the British Embassies in Paris, Rome and Rabat. He has worked on national security issues in the Cabinet Office, led the International Organisations Department in the FCO, and was Private Secretary to four Ministers for Europe during the first years of the Blair administration.

Nicholas studied at St Peter's School, York, and Cambridge University. He has also studied at La Sapienza University in Rome and ENA in Paris.

In his spare time Nicholas writes fiction. His novel, In Pieces, about London in the nineties, is available as an e-book published by Bloomsbury.

You can follow Nicholas on Twitter: @NicholasHopton.