Research projects

Our historical papers cover subjects as diverse as Nazi gold, slavery and diplomacy and history of the FCO.

We have added a selection of the papers to the website. Known as Occasional Papers, these are a series of pamphlets, usually reproducing thetexts of lectures given in the FCO or research papers written by orcommissioned by Historians. They include:

The FCO: People, Policy and Places, 1782-1997
Nazi Gold: information from the British archives - are the accepted authoritative British sources on this subject.
Slavery in diplomacy: the Foreign Office and the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade - which tells the story of the Foreign Office's Slave Trade Department which was the Office's largest Department from the 1820s through to the 1840s.

Nazi Gold

FCO published its first report into the question of Nazi gold in September 1996.

Britain in NATO

To mark the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty, we have produced a documentary history which highlights the debates and policy initiatives undertaken by the Alliance during its first six decades.

Commemoration of British Diplomats

Policy, People and Places

An outline history of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

Women in Diplomacy

Women have been employed in the Foreign Office since its creation in 1782, but it was not until 1946 that women were given the opportunity to be employed as diplomats.