About me
My name is David McMahon. I'm a native of the United Kingdom and a British/Irish dual national.
I started learning German at the age of 12, when my father was posted to RAF Laarbruch in Germany. After school I continued studying German at the University of Birmingham, whose Department of German Studies was widely recognised as being among the best in the country. I followed up my Bachelor of Arts degree (First Class Honours, with particularly high marks in the German language skills papers) with a doctorate in Modern German History, which I completed in 1991 after two years' research in Hamburg and Berlin.
My career in detail
2004 to date: website design and development, writing
1991-2004: HM Diplomatic Service
- 2001-04: New Delhi: First Secretary (Economic/Trade Policy/Environment) at the British High Commission, including two weeks spent on secondment at the German Embassy
- 1999-2001: London: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO): Head of Asia Policy Section in the South East Asian Department (Responsibility for regional policy. Involved participation in several EU CFSP meetings in Brussels, attendance at ASEM III in Seoul, the EU-ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Vientiane, seminar at the Bundeswehr Amt für Studien und Übungen in Waldbröl)
- 1997-99: London: FCO: Economic Relations Department (dealing with debt; involved attendance at meetings of the Paris Club of creditor governments)
- 1993-97: Dhaka: Second Secretary (Political/Press & Public Affairs) at the British High Commission
- 1993: London: FCO: Security Policy Department (Bosnia crisis)
- 1991-93: London: FCO: Soviet Department/Eastern Department (dealing with relations with the USSR and its successors)
1988-91: Research student at the University of Birmingham (Modern German History); PhD conferred July 1991
- 1988 and 1990: Research at the Hamburg State Archive
- 1989: Research in Berlin (West)
1984-1988: BA student in Combined Subjects (German Studies and Modern History). Graduated in 1988 with First Class Honours.
- 1986-1987: 2 semesters spent at the Gesamthochschule Kassel
- 1985: Four-week summer course at the Philipps-Universität Marburg (financed by a scholarship of the DAAD - the German Academic Exchange Service)
1984: 8 weeks working for Siemens AG in Munich on a student placement
1977-1980: Lived in Germany near what was then RAF Laarbruch (1977-78 attended Windsor Boys' School in Hamm, a UK Government-funded boarding school)
Interests: Reading, writing, travel, building websites, politics, economics, science, technology
