06/30/2011 -

In support of President Obama’s plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said that now what’s needed is a “diplomatic surge.” But as more civilians are deployed to conflict zones and other high threat areas, the need for adequately trained Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) personnel increases as well. The planned troop withdrawal – 10,000 from Afghanistan by the end of this year – will leave many roles currently filled by U.S. troops to diplomatic security. Nintey percent of the DS workforce are private security contractors. It’s possible that in the near future, combat-type missions could be coming to private security contractors as their responsibilities increase to include tasks like recovering downed aircraft, IED evaluation, and rocket and mortar countermeasures.

At a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing Wednesday afternoon, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official expressed concerns that the State Department’s diplomatic security operations may not be ready for the challenge. GAO suggestions on training shortfalls, given in a2009 report on the state of diplomatic security, have not been acted on, and DS lacks a system to evaluate the overall effectiveness or keep track of individual training, Jess T. Ford, director, International Affairs and Trade Issues, GAO, said at the hearing.

Eric J. Boswell, assistant secretary of State for diplomatic security acknowledged that the bureau was strained, but said substantial progress was being made toward preparing DS for a heightened role as the withdrawal progressed. “The scope and scale of our responsibilities have grown immensely in response to threats…. We now operate in places where in the past we would have closed the post and evacuated personnel,” he said. Boswell said DS would be dramatically increasing the number of security personnel at posts and increasing the use of contractors to function in capacity in roles that are “not mainstream Department of State functions.”

What DS lacks many military capabilities, like intelligence collection and deterrence, he hopes will be supplied by local contractors and security forces. “We are not an offensive unit…. As Iraq stabilizes as a nation we’re going to rely on the Iraqi police for these functions to the maximum extent that we can,” he said. Boswell noted that DS personnel have been providing security to their posts in Baghdad for more than a year without U.S. military help.

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