Nicholas Westcott

Born in Guildford, Surrey, Westcott attended Epsom College{{Cite web|title=Moving in Diplomatic Circles|url=http://www.educationtrust-oeclub.org/userfiles/documents/oestuff/oezine/publications/Pheonix_Spring08_Web.pdf|website=Phoenix, Newsletter of the Old Epsomian Club|date= Spring 2008|page= 7}} and studied at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, from 1974 to 1982, taking a Bachelor of Arts in history and completing a PhD on "The Impact of the Second World War on Tanganyika, 1939–1951".{{Cite thesis|title=Cambridge University PhD 1982|url=http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/88341|website=available on microfilm from the University of Nairobi Research Archive|year=1982 |type=Thesis |last1=Westcott |first1=N. J. }}

He joined the British diplomatic service in 1982, serving in the UK Representation to the European Union in Brussels from 1985 to 1989, as the Deputy High Commissioner in Tanzania (1993–1996), and as Minister-Counsellor in the Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington, D.C. (1999–2002). In the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (then the FCO) Westcott worked as head of the Economic Relations Department (1996–1999), and as chief information officer and head of IT strategy from 2002 to 2007.{{Cite journal|title=Out of this World|journal=Managing Information Systems |date= December 2003|pages=27–32}} He was appointed British High Commissioner to Ghana in 2008–2011,{{Cite web|last=Westcott|first=N|title=Change of British High Commissioner to Ghana|url=https://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/54e6de9e0c383719802572b9005141ed/0d11652d344b7bb9802572ad005b3d30?OpenDocument|date=29 March 2007|website=Gov.net }} and served simultaneously as British Ambassador to Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo.{{Cite web|title=Ivory Coast: Gbagbo 'expels UK and Canada envoys'

|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-africa-12132835|website=BBC|date=7 January 2011}}{{Cite web|title=A Directory of British Diplomats|url=https://issuu.com/fcohistorians/docs/bdd_part_2_with_covers|website=FCDO Historians|date=18 March 2014 }} In 2011, President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast expelled Westcott and Canadian Ambassador Marie Isabelle Massip after their respective governments said they would no longer recognize Gbagbo as President after he lost the 2010 election.{{cite news |title=Incumbent Ivory Coast President Expels British, Canadian Ambassadors |url=https://www.voanews.com/africa/incumbent-ivory-coast-president-expels-british-canadian-ambassadors |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210805234434/https://www.voanews.com/africa/incumbent-ivory-coast-president-expels-british-canadian-ambassadors |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 August 2021 |access-date=3 December 2020 |publisher=VOA |date=January 5, 2011}}

In 2011, he was appointed as the first managing director for Africa in the EU's European External Action Service in Brussels, serving under the first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton.{{Cite web|title=Ashton Names EEAS Managing Director of Africa

|url=https://www.devex.com/news/ashton-names-eeas-managing-director-of-africa-72005|first= Ivy|last= Mungcal|website=Devex|date= 7 January 2011}}{{Cite web|title=EU's new diplomats for Africa|url=https://europafrica.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/the-eu_s-new-diplomats-for-africa1.pdf|website=Europafrica |date= March 2011}} In 2015 he was moved to become Managing Director for the Middle East and North Africa by HRVP Federica Mogherini.{{Cite web|title=EU Movers and shakers|url=https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/movers-and-shakers-5-october-2015|website=The Parliament Magazine|date= October 2017}}

In November 2017, Westcott returned to London to take up the role of director of the Royal African Society, and was appointed a research associate at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy as SOAS University of London He was made professor of practice in diplomacy in the Department of Politics in February 2023.{{Cite web|last=Westcott|first=Nicholas|title=CISD|url=https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff129520.php|website=SOAS Staff List}}

He also sits on the boards of the African Center for Economic Transformation, based in Accra, Ghana, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Collection at King's College London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a member of Chatham House. He was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1998.{{Cite web |title=Page 1 {{!}} Supplement 55354, 31 December 1998 {{!}} London Gazette {{!}} The Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/55354/supplement/1/data.htm |access-date=2024-03-11 |website=www.thegazette.co.uk}}

Westcott was married for 30 years to Miriam Pearson (died 2018). They have one daughter and one son.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

• "The Impact of the Second World War on Tanganyika, 1939–49" in D. Killingray and R. Rathbone (ed.), Africa and the Second World War (1986), {{ISBN|0-333-38258-7}}
• Managed Economies in World War II, with P. Kingston and R. G. Tiedemann (1991), {{ISBN|0728601893}}
• Digital Diplomacy: the Impact of the Internet on International Relations, (2008){{Cite web|last=Westcott|first=Nicholas|date=July 2008|title=OII Research Report 16|url=https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/archive/downloads/publications/RR16.pdf|website=OII}}
• Responding to Conflict and Promoting Stability: European Policy in the Middle East and North Africa (2017){{Cite web|title=LSE European Foreign Policy Note 1, June 2017|url=https://www.lse.ac.uk/international-relations/assets/documents/efpu/publications/LSE-Policy-Note-EU-and-MENA-NW-5-June-2017.pdf}}
• "The Trump Administration's Africa policy" (2019), African Affairs{{Cite journal|title=Briefing|journal=African Affairs|volume=118/473|pages=737–749}}
• Imperialism and Development: the East African Groundnut Scheme and its legacy (2020), {{ISBN|978-1-84701-259-3}}

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Category:1956 births

Category:Living people

Category:High commissioners of the United Kingdom to Ghana

Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Burkina Faso

Category:20th-century British male writers

Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Togo

Category:British expatriates in the United States

Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Niger

Category:British expatriates in Tanzania

Category:Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Ivory Coast

Category:21st-century British diplomats

Category:20th-century British diplomats

Category:Politicians from Guildford

Category:Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Category:People educated at Epsom College

Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George

Category:21st-century British male writers