James Barbour is Press Secretary at the British Embassy in Washington, and and Head of Communications for the UK's network of 11 offices across the United States.

He joined the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1997, following a Masters in Politics at the University of Edinburgh. Roughly half of his career has been spent in London, in a range of public and private sector roles covering the OSCE and the Balkans, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance, press work and public relations.

From 2000 to 2004 James was Head of Chancery at the British High Commission in Cape Town, and more recently spent 2007 to 2011 as Press Secretary at the British Embassy in Moscow. In Washington James is responsible for managing and portraying the Embassys and the British Governments public presence in the United States, engaging in debates in the US media environment on policy issues of importance to the UK, and contributing presentational perspectives to the Embassys policy discussions.

From 2004 to 2007 James worked in the London office of Hill & Knowlton heading their International Government Relations practice and working on a range of client engagements across corporate communications, public relations and crisis management.

James is a keen advocate of social media and speaks regularly on the interface between diplomacy and digital engagement.

Policy, Foreign Policy, Technology, SXSW, great britain (uk), United Kingdom, Security & Defense, International Security, Climate Change, Energy Security, Political, Media Professionals, Social Media, Print Media, Internet, Leadership, Broadcasting,