[2] In March 1979, she was sitting next to the British ambassador Sir Richard Sykes when he was shot dead in his car by the Provisional Irish Republican Army outside his home in The Hague.

[2] In 1979 she served on a special mission as an assistant to the EC "Committee of Wise Men", appointed by the European Council to advise on institutional improvements in advance of Greek accession.

[1] From August 1987 to November 1989 she served at the British Embassy in Beijing as Deputy Head of Mission, Consul-General, and a member of the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group on the Future of Hong Kong.

From January to July 1990 she took a sabbatical leave to research and write on relations between China and Central and Eastern Europe at Chatham House (the Royal Institute for International Affairs) in London.

She left that appointment, and resigned from the British Service, to take up her post at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) from July 2002.

[5] From 1990 Bailes published many articles in international journals, and some book chapters, on subjects principally of European defence, regional security cooperation, and arms control.