The Death of Ambassador Chris Stevens, the Need for "Expeditionary Diplomacy," and the Real Lessons for U.S. Diplomacy

By Anthony H. Cordesman

Oct 11, 2012

http://csis.org/publication/death-ambassador-chris-stevens-need-expeditionary-diplomacy-and-real-lessons-us-diplomac?utm_source=The+Death+of+Ambassador+Chris+Stevens+and+Real+Lessons+for+U.S.+Diplomacy&utm_campaign=The+Death+of+Ambassador+Chris+Stevens+and+Real+Lessons+for+U.S.+Diplomacy&utm_medium=email

It is almost inevitable in an election year that Republicans use every possible opportunity to attack the Obama Administration. Part of these attacks have been effort to embarrass the President by turning the killing of Ambassador Stevens into a “gotcha” contest where the President is somehow blamed for largely local security decisions and “intelligence failures.” The Administration, in turn, has fumbled the situation by going into a state of confused denial – focusing on the uncertain chronology of events that led to Ambassador Chris Stevens’ death.
The Republicans seem to be “winning” in political terms, largely because so few Americans in think tanks and the media realize that virtually all intelligence and security post-mortems on such events uncover the same problems. Once the event is over and clear patterns emerge, there are always warning indicators that could have been heeded in retrospect. If one ignores that vast amount of “noise” from other conflicting indicators, and looks back with 20-20 hindsight, every such event is always an “intelligence” failure.
Moreover, competent security officers always are asking for more support and coverage in any area where risks exist. There is never enough security even in the best funded times, and these are not the best funded times. Almost every aspect of U.S. diplomacy has been subject to budget cuts at a time of upheaval in the Arab world and global economic crisis.