A Latter Day Judas? Security, Diplomatic Protection, and the Foreign Office Security Department, 1955–1987

Abstract

This article looks at the response of the British Foreign Office to security threats to HMG diplomats and diplomatic posts, placing security at the heart of the study of UK diplomacy. It explores the response of the Foreign Office’s Security Department to the threat of espionage by hostile states, and the increasingly violent threats posed by terrorist groups and other non-state groups to diplomats and diplomatic premises overseas. It seeks to build on earlier work on the development of the Security Department, suggesting that security within the Foreign Office was taken increasingly seriously as the lives of officials came under threat. It also looks at the broader role that security plays in diplomacy, and the tensions between public diplomacy and the protection of officials serving overseas.