THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 13 T he After Action: True Stories of the Diplomatic Security Service podcast first aired in April 2023 with an episode featuring Special Agent Kala Bokelman, who discussed her role in breaking up a child pornography trafficking ring in Costa Rica and Mexico—a story Bokelman first wrote about in the June 2018 FSJ. A later episode features Larry Doggett, a now-retired security engineering officer who hunted for bugs in the embassy in Moscow in the 1980s, at the same time as Clayton Lonetree—a Marine Security Guard later convicted of spying for the Soviets—was posted there. Doggett served in Moscow again in the 1990s, when the new embassy building had to be partially destroyed because it was riddled with listening devices, and he talks about what it was like to be on the team trying to outsmart the Soviets. Other episodes include one on the work that goes into protecting the Secretary of State, with Special Agents (and former FSJ Editorial Board members) Karen Brown Cleveland and Lawrence Casselle, and another featuring retired Agent Paul Davies on what it was like to be at the consulate in Herat during the September 2013 terrorist attack. Podcast of the Month: After Action (https://bit.ly/After-Action-podcast) The appearance of a particular site or podcast is for information only and does not constitute an endorsement. More Than 100 Aid Workers Killed in Gaza In the 78-year history of the United Nations, it has never experienced so much loss so quickly. On Nov. 13, 2023, the United Nations reported that 101 of its aid workers serving at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza had been killed since the start of the conflict on Oct. 7. Flags were lowered to half staff at U.N. outposts around the world and the U.N.’s Secretary-General António Guterres led a minute of silence at U.N. headquarters in New York in honor of their fallen colleagues. Tatiana Valovaya, director-general of the U.N. office in Geneva, said: “Thousands of our colleagues continue to work under the U.N. flag in [the] most risky parts of the world. Let’s pay tribute to their activities, to their work, to their devotion.” Established in 1949, UNRWA is the main U.N. agency operating in Gaza and has been sheltering 780,000 people in more than 150 facilities since the start of the conflict. More than 60 UNRWA facilities, mostly schools, have suffered either collateral or direct damage due to Israeli strikes. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Nov. 8 that both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes since the start of the conflict. On Nov. 14, CNN reported that at least 42 media workers have also been killed since the start of the conflict. Introducing ADS Bureau The State Department announced on Nov. 13, 2023, that it had renamed the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. In a nod to its role in “addressing new challenges posed by emerging security technologies and computing, aiming to play “a key role in establishing and promoting norms of responsible behavior in outer space, cyberspace, and with artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.” The new name is intended to reflect a broader effort to modernize the Foreign Service and address emerging national security challenges. Dissent in a Connected World Disagreements over the Biden administration’s Israel and Gaza policy continue to make headlines rather than remain behind closed doors. domains,” the bureau will now be known as the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability (ADS). Mallory Stewart continues in the role of assistant secretary for the renamed bureau. According to the release, ADS “leads Department of State efforts on developing, negotiating, implementing, and verifying compliance with a range of arms control and disarmament agreements and arrangements; extended deterrence; missile defense; confidence- and security-building measures (CSBMs); risk reduction; and crisis communications.” The bureau is also building capacity on AI, biotechnology, and quantum A moment of silence at U.N. headquarters in New York on Nov. 13, 2023. UNITED NATIONS
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