From Carbon Paper to E-mail: Changes in Methods in the Foreign Office, 1950-2000.

Attempts to modernise the working practices of the Foreign Office within the last half century have largely been successful. Technological advances have rendered the work of today's Foreign Secretaries and Diplomatic Service totally different from their immediate post-war predecessors. This has not only speeded up the pace of diplomacy but resulted in a more 'intimate' approach to diplomatic contact through the use of video and satellite links, for example. These changes have taken place against the backdrop of a decline of Britain as a world power and a realignment of the British relationship with Europe through the European Union. At the same time, however, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was anxious to preserve its architectural and historical heritage, and the author praises the Thatcher government's commitment to restoring Gilbert Scott's building in Whitehall to its original splendour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]