The Foreign Service Journal, September 2005

22 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5 F O C U S O N D I P L O M A T I C S E C U R I T Y D IPLOMATIC S ECURITY : E DITOR ’ S I NTRODUCTION B Y S TEVEN A LAN H ONLEY ew parts of the State Department have more wide-ranging or crucial responsibilities than the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is charged with providing a safe and secure environment for the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. The bureau’s many and varied tasks have never been easy, but the work has only gotten tougher in the post-9/11 era. Four years after those attacks, it seems timely to take an in-depth look at howDS has expanded and adapted to take on the new challenges. Retired senior FSO David Jones, a frequent Journal contributor, leads off our coverage with an overview of the bureau’s history and current organizational structure (“A Thankless Job: The Bureau of Diplomatic Security,” p. 23). DS does its best to avoid being overly intrusive, yet sufficiently vigilant, as it safeguards people and facili- ties. But as the article’s title suggests, it is unclear whether it has found that elusive balance. Ambassador Richard J. Griffin assumed his duties as Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security and Director of the Office of Foreign Missions in June. In “State’s Global Security and Law Enforcement Team” (p. 33), he provides an overview of the bureau’s successes and goals. A significant part of the bureau’s work is inherently not well-publicized: collaborating with federal law enforce- ment agencies and host country counterparts to appre- hend American fugitives overseas. U.S. News & World Report reporter KevinWhitelaw gives us a detailed look at some of DS’s notable successes in Belize and Cuba (“DS Gets Its Man,” p. 38). Three years before the 9/11 attacks, al-Qaida opera- tives bombed our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Those tragedies galvanized State Department efforts to make our diplomatic facilities around the world more secure, a process that is still under way. But in “New Embassy Designs Clash with Public Diplomacy Agenda” (p. 44), expert Jane Loeffler argues that the current archi- tectural approach reflects our fears more than our hopes, and is undercutting our ability to reach out to overseas contacts in the process. In the 21st century, the concept of diplomatic security applies as much to the Internet as to brick and mortar. Retired FSO Joe Johnson assesses our efforts to protect our electronic systems in “Cyber Security at State: The Stakes Get Higher” (p. 52). On an individual level, the issuance and adjudication of security clearances probably represents the main way DS interacts with most Foreign Service employees. Attorney Michael O’Hannon reminds us that all FS personnel are entitled to have an AFSA representative and attorney pre- sent during questioning (“Security Clearances: Know Your Rights,” p. 58). And two Foreign Service members (one of them a DS agent himself) offer their own experi- ences with the process as cautionary tales in “Left in Limbo” (p. 62), which we accompany with contributions from Donald Reid, director of DS’s Security Infrastructure Program, and AFSA General Counsel Sharon Papp. Finally, Anthony Renzulli, the Fraud Prevention Officer in Mumbai, explains how the Bureaus of Diplomatic Security and Consular Affairs are “Working Together for Secure Borders, Open Doors” (p. 71). No single survey can truly do justice to a bureau as complex as Diplomatic Security, much less to the overall subject of security. But we hope that this focus section will promote a greater understanding of what DS does and stimulate discussion of how it can do its job even bet- ter. We therefore invite your thoughts, commentaries and analysis on that score (please send them to authors@afsa.org). n F Steven Alan Honley is the editor of the Foreign Service Journal . An FSO from 1985 to 1997, he served in Mexico City, Wellington and Washington, D.C.