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From its creation as the Empire Service in 1932 until the present day, the BBC's overseas broadcasting arm has depicted itself as a fundamentally benevolent organisation, serving humanity as a whole by 'telling the truth'tohundreds of millions of listeners worldwide. As the empire ebbed away in the 1960s, the BBC was forced to adapt its approach to international broadcasting in recognition of Britain's diminished global status. This adaptation wasbroadly successful: by theend of the millennium, the rebranded 'World Service' had retained its international reputation as a trusted source of impartial news and vital information, while also adopting a new and prominent role within the global development sector, reflected by thelaunch of a World Service-branded international development NGO, the BBC World Service Trust (now BBC Media Action)in 1999.In the same year, UN Secretary-GeneralKofi Annancelebrated the organisation's impact as a global force for good, describing it as 'perhaps Britain's greatest gift to the world in the twentieth century'.This thesis critically evaluates this characterization of the World Service as a post-imperial 'gift to the world',focusing on its interactions with a range of governmental and non-governmental actors within the interconnected fields of humanitarian, human rights, and overseas developmentbetween the mid-1960s and the end of the 1990s. Throughclose analysis of recently declassified or previously unstudied official documents from the BBC and FCO archives, newly collected oral history testimony from former World Service staff, andWorld Service-related source material located drawn from the NGO sector, itdemonstrates how the World Service succeeded in sustaining itself through this period despite the numerous challenges to its existence and status. It argues that the World Servicecarefully but consistently deployedthe language of humanitarianism and human rights, alongsidenew forms of overseas development activity, tohelpit tonavigatethree closely related long-term challenges: the end of empire, the conduct and sudden conclusion of the Cold War, and the emergence ofnew, neoliberal modes of governance on both the national and international stage. In doing so, itnot only challengesand complicatesthe prevailing image of the BBC World Service as a benevolent 'gift to the world', but also situatesthe World Service as a unique and valuable vantage point from which we might better understandhow and why Britain projected itself as a force for good on the global stage in the latter third of the twentieth century.

Leadership is said to be essential for addressing the climate crisis. Nations make claims of "leading by example" when they set climate targets and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But leading by example is rarely discussed or researched at an individual level, despite established knowledge about leader influence and the need for society-wide behaviour change. This thesis enters the gap. It presents mixed methods research exploring the effects of leaders who adopt visible high-impact low-carbon behaviour: flying less, eating less meat, improving home energy efficiency, living car-free, or choosing to have fewer children. The leaders in question are high-profile figures who advocate for climate action, specifically politicians, celebrities, and business leaders. Four focus groups reveal a complex process of meaning-making when the public observes low-carbon action from leaders. Interviews (n=19) with UK Members of Parliament (MPs) show their caution about acting as environmental role models. A representative survey experiment (n=1,267) finds significant effects of leading by example, with members of the public expressing more willingness to adopt high-impact low-carbon behaviour if they observe a leader doing so. And a survey of people who stopped flying for a year (n=344) reveals how the behaviour of leaders had influenced them. The evidence suggests leaders who lead by example enjoy much greater approval and are considered more credible leaders. They are perceived as more trustworthy, ethical, likeable; and as caring more about climate change, believing it's more serious, and being more knowledgeable about it. Leading by example is shown to be a collective act, not an individual one, because of its influence on peoples' attitudes and behaviours in relation to climate change. There are many layers of complexity. The conditions under which leading by example inspires others to act are contingent on the specifics of the situation and the relationship between leaders and the public. The exploratory investigations in this thesis lay the ground for a broad spectrum of further research on the nature of climate leadership and the power of walking the talk.