Rodric Braithwaite

Sir Rodric Quentin Braithwaite GCMG (born May 17, 1932 ) is a former British diplomat who was ambassador to the Soviet Union and Russia between 1988 and 1992 . As a diplomat, he was an expert on European integration , but also on relations with the Warsaw Pact states and especially the Soviet Union .

Life

Military service, studies and beginning of the diplomatic career

After attending school, Braithwaite did his military service between 1950 and 1952 as a sergeant in the intelligence department of the British Army in occupied post-war Austria in Vienna . After a subsequent degree, he entered the Foreign Office in 1955 and was accepted into the diplomatic service (Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service) on August 30, 1955 . At first he worked in the department for cultural relations and then between 1957 and 1959 as third secretary at the embassy in Indonesia . He then moved to the Embassy in the People's Republic of Poland as Second Secretary in 1959 , and between 1961 and 1963 he worked as a consultant in the Eastern Europe Department of the Foreign Ministry. In 1963 he took over the post of First Secretary and Trade Officer at the Embassy in the Soviet Union and remained there until 1966. During this time, he also served as a companion to a meeting with Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin in the Soviet Union during a visit by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to the Soviet Union among other things went to the Vietnam War .

In 1966 Braithwaite became First Secretary and Trade Officer at the Embassy in Italy and held this position until 1969. He returned to Britain and was between summer 1969 and 1972 NATO -Referent in the Unit for Western organizations Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( Foreign and Commonwealth Office ) . In this function he dealt with the preparations for the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) as well as the negotiations on the mutual and balanced force reductions MBFR ( Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions ) . At the same time he worked with the then nuclear affairs advisor Michael Alexander and with the British representatives in the North Atlantic Council .

European integration specialist

In 1972 he succeeded Michael Butler as the so-called European Correspondent Head of the Department for Foreign European Integration in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, together with the specialist for the Soviet Union and the CSCE Brian Fall, took part in talks on political cooperation after the UK joined the European Union Communities . On January 1, 1973, after domestic political resistance and France's veto, it joined the European Community (EC).

Even after he left his position as head of the Department for External European Integration, Braithwaite remained connected to European policy and in 1975, as Counselor of the Embassy, became Chancellor of the Permanent Mission to the European Communities in Brussels . He then returned to Great Britain, where he became head of the planning team in 1979. As head of this unit of the Foreign Ministry, which is classified as a department, he dealt with the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan on December 25, 1979. As early as 1980, he handed over the function of Head of Planning Staff to the previous head of the department for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and later Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany , Christopher Mallaby . He himself then became Assistant Under-Secretary of State for Energy, Civil Aviation and the Environment at the State Department in 1980 . On January 1, 1981, he became Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG).

Deputy Undersecretary and Ambassador

In 1982 Braithwaite moved to the embassy in the USA and was there as envoy and head of the trade department. After returning to the UK in 1985, he became Deputy Under-Secretary of State (Economic) . On June 11, 1988, he was beaten Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG) and has since had the addition of "Sir".

Braithwaite then succeeded Bryan Cartledge as ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1988 . During this time, the Soviet Union collapsed and ultimately dissolved on December 25, 1991, so that on January 1, 1992 he became the first British ambassador to the Russian Federation as the representative of the Soviet Union's rights and obligations under international law . He remained in this post until he retired in 1992 and was then replaced by Brian Fall , who had previously been High Commissioner in Canada .

Subsequently, Braithwaite acted between 1992 and 1993 as foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister John Major and at the same time became Percy Cradock's successor as chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee ( JIC ) in 1992 . He also only held this office until 1993 and was then replaced by Pauline Neville-Jones . During this time, the Bosnian War began , among other things . On January 1, 1994, he was also raised to the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (GCMG).

After his retirement he published various non-fiction books such as the European integration of Russia and the Second World War in the Soviet Union. For his 2011 book Afgantsy. The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89 on the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, he was awarded the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature in 2011 . He is also a member of the advisory board of the RUSI Journal , published by the Royal United Services Institute .

Braithwaite had been married to the diplomat Gillian Mary Robinson , who died in 2008, since 1961 , who later studied archeology and became a specialist in pottery in the Roman Empire . From this marriage the daughters Katharine and the sons Richard, Julian (whose twin brother Mark already died) and David emerged.

Publications

Russia in Europe , Center for European Reform (CER), 1999, ISBN 978-1-90122-9-103
Moscow 1941. A City and Its People at War , Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. , 2006, ISBN 978-1-40004-4-306
Afgantsy. The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89 , Oxford University Press , 2011, ISBN 978-0-19983-2-651

Web links

Short biography and interview of the British Diplomatic Oral History Program of Churchill College of the University of Cambridge
BRITISH AMBASSADORS AND HIGH COMMISSIONERS: 1880-2010
Proof of publication in the Open Library

Individual evidence

↑ London Gazette . No. 41637, HMSO, London, February 17, 1959, p. 1163 ( PDF , accessed June 16, 2016, English).
^ London Gazette (Supplement). No. 48467, HMSO, London, December 30, 1980, p. 4 ( PDF , accessed June 16, 2016, English).
^ London Gazette (Supplement). No. 51365, HMSO, London, June 10, 1988, p. 3 ( PDF , accessed June 16, 2016, English).
↑ London Gazette . No. 53527, HMSO, London, December 30, 1993, p. 3 ( PDF , accessed June 16, 2016, English).
↑ Obituary: Jill Braithwaite . In: The Guardian, December 3, 2008

personal data
SURNAME	Braithwaite, Rodric
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Braithwaite, Sir Rodric Quentin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH	May 17, 1932

[1] London Gazette . No. 41637, HMSO, London, February 17, 1959, p. 1163 ( PDF , accessed June 16, 2016, English).

[2] London Gazette (Supplement). No. 48467, HMSO, London, December 30, 1980, p. 4 ( PDF , accessed June 16, 2016, English).

[3] London Gazette (Supplement). No. 51365, HMSO, London, June 10, 1988, p. 3 ( PDF , accessed June 16, 2016, English).

[4] London Gazette . No. 53527, HMSO, London, December 30, 1993, p. 3 ( PDF , accessed June 16, 2016, English).

[5] Obituary: Jill Braithwaite . In: The Guardian, December 3, 2008