U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Adolph Dubs was commuting from his residence to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on February 14, 1979, when four men abducted him. A man dressed as a policeman stopped the Ambassador's car and said that he had orders to search it. Aiming a gun at the chauffeur's head, the “policeman” ordered the chauffeur to remain still while he and three men got into the car. At gunpoint, the chauffeur drove to the Kabul Hotel, arriving at about 8:50 a.m. The kidnappers ordered Dubs out of the car and took him to a second floor room. The chauffeur was instructed to go to the U.S. Embassy and inform the Americans of the situation. A large number of Afghan police, military, and fire department personnel quickly surrounded the hotel. Three Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) from the U.S. Embassy arrived, as did four Soviet officials. During the next four hours, U.S. Officials repeatedly urged Afghan officials to exercise restraint to ensure the Ambassador's safety. According to FSOs on site, the four Soviet officials held repeated discussions with Afghan authorities and appeared to serve as advisors. At 12:50 p.m. Afghan forces stormed the second-floor room, and Ambassador Dubs was killed during the ensuing gunfire.The abduction and death of Ambassador Dubs highlighted the importance of diplomatic security and prompted U.S. Department of State officials to reexamine the security measures that they had in place. The United States has always had some form of diplomatic security, yet the threats to U.S. diplomacy and the measures that the Department of State has employed to counter them have changed considerably over time. This history explores how diplomatic security at the Department of State has evolved from the American Revolution to the post- Cold War era.The Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) is the security and law enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of State. DS is a world leader in international investigations, threat analysis, cyber security, counterterrorism, security technology, and protection of people, property, and information.The Bureau of Diplomatic Security is responsible for providing a safe and secure environment for the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. Every diplomatic mission in the world operates under a security program designed and maintained by Diplomatic Security. In the United States, Diplomatic Security personnel protect the Secretary of State and high-ranking foreign dignitaries and officials visiting the United States, investigates passport and visa fraud, and conducts personnel security investigations. Operating from a global platform in 25 U.S. cities and 159 foreign countries, DS ensures that America can conduct diplomacy safely and securely. DS plays a vital role in protecting U.S. embassies and personnel overseas, securing critical information systems, investigating passport and visa fraud, and fighting the war on terror.

The safety of diplomats has animated recent public and political debates. As diplomatic personnel are increasingly targeted by terrorism and political violence while overseas, sending states are augmenting host nations' security measures with their own. Protective arrangements range from deploying military, police, and private security guards to relocating embassies to suburban compounds. Yet, reinforced security may also hamper effective diplomacy and international relations. Scholars and practitioners from around the world bring to light a large body of empirical information available for the first time in Diplomatic Security. This book explores the global contexts and consequences of keeping embassies and their personnel safe. The essays in this volume offer case studies that illustrate the different arrangements in the U.S., China, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Israel, and Russia. Considering the historical and legal contexts, authors examine how states protect their diplomats abroad, what drives changes in existing protective arrangements, and how such measures affect the safety of diplomats and the institution of diplomacy. Diplomatic Security not only reveals how a wide variety of states handle security needs but also illuminates the broader theoretical and policy implications for the study of diplomacy and security alike.

Al Queda's war on America did not start on September 11, 2001. Just ask the Diplomatic Security Service. It was on February 6, 1993, that the United States was first attacked on its own soil by foreign terrorists. A zealous band of Middle Easterners, holy warriors determined to punish the U.S. for its supposed transgressions against Islam, packed over a ton of home made explosives into the back of a rented van. They drove their bomb across the Hudson from New Jersey, maneuvered it through downtown traffic and parked it in the underground garage at the Vista Hotel, beneath the twin towers of the World Trade Center. They lit a long fuse, which allowed them time to get back to New Jersey to watch the results of the explosion on CNN. They hoped to topple one mammoth tower into the other and kill ten thousand people or more. Miraculously, only six people were killed. Most of the group were captured within a week, but the mastermind behind the attack, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, had immediately gone to JFK airport to fly to Pakistan. Before leaving, he phoned the Associated Press and claimed responsibility for the bombing in the name of the Arab Liberation Army, a terrorist group led by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden. A succession of such brazen crimes has revealed complex connections among terrorist groups with an implacable hostility toward Western civilization. Outrages such as the assassination of the Jewish Defense League founder Meier Kahane, a huge plot in the Philippines to plant bombs on intercontinental airlines and to assassinate the Pope, the bombing of U.S. embassies, culminating in the African embassy bombings of 1998, the attack on the USS Cole in 1999, and the devastating attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 have made it clear that a worldwide network of terrorists led by Osama bin Laden is making war on the United States. On the front lines combating these terrorists in 150 countries around the world have been the 1,200 agents of the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service. A little-known but highly effective branch of the government, the DSS is the one arm of federal law enforcement with international powers of arrest. These agents maintain close ties to local police commanders in many countries and can entice informants with bounties of up to $4,000,000. After a challenging international search, it was DSS agents in Pakistan who captured Ramzi Yousef. DSS agents have been in the vanguard of the War on Terrorism long before it was declared. In Relentless Pursuit, Samuel Katz review the escalating series of terrorist attacks on the U.S. during the last decade, including those in many foreign countries and finally in New York and Washington. In the process, he tells the gripping story of the DSS and its agents protecting us and our representatives here and abroad. Katz's detailed, personal, on-the-ground anecdotes bring home the contexts and linkages of the War on Terrorism that has been fought on our behalf by the DSS since the 1980s. Relentless Pursuit is a stirring tribute to an unsung group of brave Americans. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Randall Bennett served 25 years as a Special Agent for the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service. His memoir reveals his evolution from a new Special Agent to one of the most experienced in the U.S. government.

Special Agents of the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) have been on the front lines of securing diplomacy for over a century. From the Fall of Saigon to the U.S. embassy bombings in east Africa, and the Iranian Hostage Crisis to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, special agents of the DSS have relentlessly put their lives on the line to protect their fellow diplomats around the globe. Agents Unknown reveals the story of Cody Perron, a former Special Agent of the DSS, and his journey through the Middle East and Southeast Asia, negotiating international fugitive returns, interviewing ISIS hostages, and protecting the highest level U.S. government officials in some of the most volatile places in the world. Raw and unfiltered, Perron offers the perspective of a ground level agent revealing the unconventional duties and accomplishments as one of many "agents unknown."

Member states of ASEAN - the Association of South-East Asian Nations - have developed a distinctive approach to political and security co-operation, which builds on the principles of sovereign equality, non-intervention and non-interference, quiet diplomacy, mutual respect, and the principle of not involving ASEAN in mediating bilateral disputes among the membership. This book examines the origins of ASEAN's diplomatic and security culture and analyses how over time its key principles have been practised and contested as ASEAN states have responded to regional conflicts as well as challenges posed by the major regional powers, ASEAN's enlargement, and the Asian financial crisis. The book goes on to assess whether ASEAN's diplomatic and security culture is likely to remain salient as the political, economic and security context in which regional leaderships operate is undergoing further change.

A personal memoir about my experiences as a Diplomatic Security Service Agent in Peshawar, Pakistan and Bagram, Afghanistan. It includes a comprehensive history of some of the most dangerous times during the War on Terror. Readers will learn much that they were previously unaware of in regard to the persistent threats from the Taliban and their unpredictable actions across Pakistan and Afghanistan. The book highlights not only the daily aspects of war and terrorism that many Americans were removed from but also the courage and bravery of those who served on both sides of the Durand Line.