{"id":30865,"date":"2026-09-25T15:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.festivaldelladiplomazia.eu\/speakers\/stephen-hickey\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T15:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:26:12","slug":"stephen-hickey","status":"publish","type":"speakers","link":"https:\/\/www.festivaldelladiplomazia.eu\/en\/speakers\/stephen-hickey\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Hickey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Stephen Hickey is the British Ambassador to Italy and San Marino. He took up his post in June 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until March 2026, he served as Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Foreign, Commonwealth &amp; Development Office (FCDO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From 2019 to 2021, he was the UK Ambassador to Iraq. Prior to that, he served as Ambassador and Political Coordinator at the UK Permanent Mission to the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 2001, beginning his career as a Senior Officer in the South-East Asia Department. Over the years, he has also held the following posts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deputy Head of Mission in Egypt (2013\u20132015) and in Syria (2010\u20132011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Political Adviser in South Africa (2011\u20132012)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Head of Office and Deputy Special Representative for Libya (2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He speaks Arabic and has devoted much of his career to the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30863,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Stephen Hickey - Festival della Diplomazia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stephen Hickey is the British Ambassador to Italy and San Marino. 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