Last spring, Sir David Manning, the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the United States, visited with students in George Mann’s and Susan Rodiek’s design studios who have been working on designs for the Hatfield Health Centre in Hatfield, England. The project is a collaboration between Texas A&M University, HKS/Dallas, and Ryder HKS International London and Newcastle, England.

Educated at Oriel College, Oxford and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Manning began his career as a civil servant in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1972. He has served in embassies in Poland, India, Paris, and Moscow, and within the FCO he has worked on the Central American desk, the Russian desk and held several senior positions. He represented the UK in Brussels and also at the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia in 1994.

Between 1995 and 1998, he was British ambassador to Israel; from 2001, he was a foreign policy adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. During this time he developed a close relationship with his counterpart, then U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Blair selected him to replace Christopher Meyer as the British Ambassador to the United States. Manning took up the post in 2003.

His close relationship with the Prime Minister suggests he has been a key figure in driving British foreign policy in respect of the United States, particularly in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the decision to invade Iraq.

See related story:
http://archone.tamu.edu/college/news/
newsletters/fall2006/UKproject.html

Sir David Manning, ambassador to the U.S. from the U.K. and Northern Ireland, speaks with students and faculty