The Foreign Service Journal, March 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2017 35 mand Center is a critical component during the planning and execution of national security missions overseas. The Command Center serves as the conduit of information to the bureau, enabling it to make timely and well-informed decisions. We also have long recognized that those who target the United States overseas do not focus exclusively on the U.S. government. American businesses and private-sector groups also work in dangerous environments. For more than three decades, Diplomatic Security’s Overseas Security Advisory Council has worked closely around the globe with the U.S. private sector—companies, non-govern- mental groups, faith-based organizations and academics—on real-time threat reporting, sharing information and in-depth security assessments. Although there is no way to definitively know what threats we might face, fromwhat actors, or even where such attacks might unfold, DS is prepared to be at the forefront of protecting Ameri- cans and American interests wherever they are challenged, just as we have done for the past century. n Special agents monitor world events and overseas security from inside the Diplomatic Security Command Center in April 2014. Today the Command Center is a 24/7/365 facility with the ability to electronically monitor all U.S. diplomatic facilities around the globe. DEPARTMENTOFSTATE