Inside Havana Syndrome
The start of the untold story
Welcome back to the Gazette, from a wet London afternoon.
It was oddly motivating to get an email from Substack just 4 months after I started this publication, congratulating me on a “bestseller with hundreds of paid subscribers” (see the brazen image at the foot of this email).
To you, Founder Members and paid subscribers, I owe this success 🙏
Also to some social media lessons I learned the hard way. I’d be happy to create a subscriber channel with advice on how to launch a successful newsletter on Substack: comment if you’d value that.
Back to diplomacy, a profession and set of expertise that’s becoming more vital by the day.
I ‘m starting here to write about Havana Syndrome from the inside, after the US allegedly bought a device in an undercover operation, according to media reporting.
Don‘t miss a special anniversary moment of opportunities with the UN, highlighted here in the Gazette. Plus embassy evacuation in Tehran and more.
This edition also links you to 10 job vacancies, fellowships, internships and senior positions; and this community.
Antony
Dr Antony Stokes LVO OBE
Editor, Ambassador at Large Gazette
Diplomacy’s front line
Inside “Havana Syndrome”
My tenure as British Ambassador to Cuba coincided with the diplomacy mystery of the decade.
I’ve been approached many times for an interview or comment on Havana Syndrome. As a government diplomat, I’ve always declined. Now, I can speak independently.
How the story began, in late 2016:
Awaking my first morning in the Ambassador’s Residence, I could hardly believe my good fortune and privilege to be “Our Man in Havana”.
Looking back on over 5 years of almost every sort of crisis, I still feel that way.
Image: La Habana Vieja, 2021
A month or two (and a few crises) in, I got a call from my US counterpart, inviting me to his Embassy for a high-security confidential briefing.
