The Foreign Service Journal, March 2023

42 MARCH 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL which establishes dedicated 24/7 forces of host nation law enforcement officers to help prevent and counter attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities. Basics of the Program In 2014 DSS created the SPEAR pro- gram as a response to the 2012 attacks on the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi, Libya. The program is managed by the DSS Office of Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA), which also implements a range of programs to provide ongoing training and equipment for foreign law enforcement personnel. (See the sidebar for more detail.) The SPEAR program’s goal is to identify and train specialized law enforcement units in partner nations to protect U.S. diplo- matic personnel, often serving as a quick-reaction force. These units augment U.S. Marine Security Guards and other embassy security personnel. During an emergency, each team has its own respective charges; SPEAR’s role is to respond from outside the embassy or consulate walls. Accordingly, SPEAR teams partici- pate in relevant drills and exercises to develop a high degree of interoper- ability with other security elements. Regional Security Office (RSO) SPEAR mentors handpick the specially trained local host country law enforcement officers who make them up. Ambassador Hankins has seen firsthand the benefits of the SPEAR pro- gram. “There are parts of our mission that couldn’t function without SPEAR,” he observed as he prepared to attend a quiet gathering in May 2022 to honor two SPEAR officers who had been killed in host nation combat operations two months earlier. (The two fallen officers were not on embassy protection duties at the time of their deaths but instead had been activated by their parent National Guard unit to serve a combat rotation.) Bamako is among three State Department posts that experience the highest risk levels for crime, political Children follow SPEAR officers on patrol in Bamako, Mali, in May 2022. U.S.DEPARTMENTOFSTATE violence, and terrorist threats. The other posts are Baghdad and Mogadishu, both of which have a notably higher Department of Defense presence and more robust security resources than does Bamako, as noted by Regional Security Officer David Howell. SPEAR in Mali: Baptism by Fire Created in 2015, the SPEAR team in Bamako has been one of the program’s most important successes. The team’s 62 offi- cers are drawn fromMali’s National Guard, but also have law enforcement authority and serve as professional role models within the Malian community. Mali’s SPEAR team conducts regular security drills and fre- quent walk-throughs of potential target locations, actions that let the Malian community see SPEAR’s professional- ism firsthand. Local police have noted that crime rates are reduced in areas regularly patrolled by SPEAR. The Mali SPEAR team underwent a baptism by fire shortly after its creation. In November 2015, terrorists attacked the Radisson Blu hotel, a major focal point for Bamako’s international com- munity. An American development worker was killed in the initial assault. The SPEAR team and DSS special agents with the U.S. Embassy Regional Security Office, along with Department of Defense personnel, worked side by side to rescue more than a dozen Americans, including embassy staff, trapped in their rooms by terrorists. The ATA mentor assigned to the Mali SPEAR team demonstrates marksmanship on a shooting range in May 2022. U.S.DEPARTMENTOFSTATE