Your Trusted Source for National Security News & Analysis

December 13th, 2024 | 2:44 PM ET

Contract to Serve

Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
0 Shares
Posted: September 9th, 2015

By Suzanne Kelly

Suzanne Kelly is CEO and Publisher of The Cipher Brief 

The State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, which grew out of the Inman Report recommendations, was never meant to be a war zone security force.  But then again, diplomats were never meant to conduct business as usual in places that were still, in effect, war zones.  Simply put: Iraq was a game changer.

The game started to change in 2003, when The White House tapped retired ambassador Paul Bremer to take control of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which had been tasked with facilitating the handover of power from the U.S. to an Iraqi government.  That meant that U.S. diplomats had to be on hand to facilitate the enormous undertaking of helping to rebuild a destroyed country.  Insurgents were ramping up attacks across the country in an effort to disrupt rebuilding efforts and the diplomats who volunteered to serve were facing risks they had never been trained to face. 

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.

Sign Up Log In

Categorized as:North America ReportingTagged with:

Related Articles

Search

Close