Effective security precautions require a continuous and conscious awareness of one’s environment as well as the need to exercise prudence, judgment and common sense. This is especially true where the traveler must adapt to new cultures, customs and laws. Personal security cannot be delegated to others; it is the responsibility of each one of us, as we promote American and commercial interests around the globe.

—Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, “Personal Security Guidelines for the American Business Traveler Overseas”

Tens of millions of Americans travel outside of the United States each year. The same is true for millions of citizens of Western European nations. Most are traveling for pleasure. However, there are also millions of American and European citizens who live, study, work, and raise their families overseas. While the exact number of these expatriates is impossible to determine, a rough estimate can be made. As far as the number of American expatriates, the 1990 census documented 925,845 Americans as residents of foreign countries. This number, however, tells only a small part of the story, as the census figures do not reflect the total number of Americans residing in other countries. The numbers only account for U.S. military personnel and their dependents assigned to military bases on foreign soil. Also included are the crews of naval vessels assigned to the 6th and 7th fleets, U.S. merchant marine crews, and the federal civilian employees and their dependents serving at overseas posts. Not included are the several hundred thousand Americans living abroad while working for multinational companies or attending foreign universities. Also not reflected in the census figures are the hundreds of thousands of Americans retiring abroad to countries where the cost of living is low or those married to foreign nationals. The tens of thousands who return to their ancestral homeland or simply move overseas for other personal reasons are also not counted. How many Americans actually are residing abroad? While the exact number is unknown, the Association of Americans Resident Overseas (AARO) places the estimate at between 1 and 6 million. The lower estimate cannot be correct. The census numbers list nearly 1 million residents of foreign countries. Recent estimates indicate approximately 140,000 university-level students living abroad. Certainly an additional several hundred thousand Americans are living and working abroad for private corporations, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of hyphenated Americans returning to their native country. The actual number, therefore, is at least in the middle of the estimated range, which means that at least several million American citizens are currently residing outside of the continental United States at any given time.

A determination of the numbers of European citizens residing abroad is even more difficult to compile. Citizens of the United Kingdom (including Canadians and Australians) live and travel abroad in great numbers. The British Ministry of Tourism maintains statistics relative to the travel habits of British citizens. These statistics show that citizens of the United Kingdom made more than 58.3 million trips abroad between the years 1997 and 2001. Citizens of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, and other countries of Western Europe also make millions of trips abroad each year.

These Americans, Europeans, Australians, and Canadians, regardless of whom they work for or why they are living abroad, face many challenges in adjusting to life outside of their native lands. Often they are overwhelmed by the necessity of communicating in another language, adapting themselves to local customs, and living in a society devoid of many of the modern conveniences we take for granted. They also must face the prospect that, in many parts of the world, being an American or European citizen exposes them to a grave and very real danger of death or serious injury. Westerners abroad are increasingly at risk of being harmed or worse and have begun to focus on their physical safety more than at any time in our history. They have all begun to ask what they can and should do to prevent becoming another statistic.

Employees of the U.S. federal government and their dependents have an advantage; they receive at least some training regarding personal security matters. All government personnel, prior to being posted in a foreign country, must attend the Security Overseas Seminar given by the U.S. Department of State in its training facility in Arlington, Virginia. This excellent and well-run two-day school is designed to provide the employee with some of the necessary knowledge about how to minimize threats to personal security. In addition, the State Department strongly encourages dependent family members to attend the training. The problem with even this excellent program is that two days is not enough time to properly prepare someone, especially a layperson with no background in security or law enforcement, for the real risks that Americans abroad will likely encounter. Furthermore, the course subject matter is the same regardless of which country employees may be posted to. An individual stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa gets the same training as someone posted to Peshawar in Pakistan, despite the very real and significant differences in the threats that may be encountered in those two countries. The important issues are all touched on and the instructors are all experienced professionals. However, as is common with most government training programs, they are forced to present too much information in too short a time period. This one-size-fits-all approach is, unfortunately, the rule rather than the exception in almost any type of program offered by the federal government. Although the State Department could spend more time providing country-specific training, local Regional Security Officers (RSOs) do provide more thorough training once employees arrive at their post, and the Congress has mandated that every U.S. Embassy receive a security briefing and evaluation by Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) agents every three years. In addition, employees of the State Department and the numerous other government agencies maintaining offices in embassies around the world have the advantage of being protected by the DSS as well as the embassy’s marine guard detail. The RSO, a trained security professional, is always available to provide the embassy staff with the answers to their security questions and needs. This is not the case with private industry. No mandatory training program is provided to those Americans employed overseas by private companies. In fact, to our knowledge, no programs in private industry mandate that security training be given to personnel working abroad to familiarize them with the techniques that will increase their level of personal safety while living abroad. While many of the large multinationals do have security departments that offer some assistance in this regard, very little actual instruction is provided to enhance the safety of employees. Private security companies and security consultants can provide this type of training, but they are seldom contracted to teach corporate employees the fundamentals of personal security. Such training, when it does exist, is generally reserved for high-profile corporate officers. It is not made available to the rank and file.

The same is true for American and European students studying abroad. Many schools that participate in exchange programs with universities in foreign countries offer seminars designed to help students acclimate to their new environment. A basic language course may be offered as well as an overview of the culture of the host country. This training is designed to reduce the level of stress attendant to adapting to a new and perhaps very different culture. Typically, information relative to security issues is not presented or, if it is, is offered on a superficial level.

To partially remedy this situation, the U.S. State Department has created special divisions whose task it is to help Americans address their safety concerns while living in a foreign country. For the international business traveler, the State Department established the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) in 1985, in order to provide American companies that have overseas assets with a forum to share and disseminate information relative to security matters. OSAC has published several excellent publications that have provided guidance for the business traveler as well as Americans working abroad. In addition, to further improve the level of security awareness, the State Department sends DSS agents to large companies abroad to provide security briefings and related training. These DSS agents do a great deal of training for the employees of oil companies and other large American businesses overseas, such as Coca-Cola. However, the DSS responds only by invitation, and the availability of such courses depends largely on the personnel and resources available for teaching private concerns at any given time. The primary function of the DSS is to support the government mission overseas by providing protection for the local embassy and its staff. Assisting private companies, while it does further the goals and interests of the United States abroad, is secondary to that overriding protective function. DSS agents provide excellent instruction when availability of manpower allows. It is recommended that your company request DSS services. However, demand for such training far exceeds the ability of the DSS to accommodate it. If you happen to be an employee of a small company with offices abroad or are an American working for a foreign corporation, it is unlikely that the DSS will be able to accommodate your training request. The Service will, however, provide you with important and useful information and will direct you to other resources that may be of help. The gaps in providing instruction as well as other services related to security must be filled by private security consultants and other providers. It is, therefore, your personal responsibility to access these other options and take steps to enhance your own level of safety.

As an American citizen abroad, you have the opportunity to attend scheduled security briefings and training offered by the State Department in overseas embassies. Congress has mandated that every U.S. Embassy receive a complete security evaluation every three years. During these evaluations, the DSS provides a security seminar and briefing for embassy personnel and American citizens living in the host country even if they do not work at the embassy. If you are living abroad, contact the local embassy or consulate and ask when the next such seminar will be held. The security-related information presented during these seminars is invaluable. In addition, many embassies and consulates routinely provide inhouse security workshops that are also open to Americans regardless of their employment status. These programs are in place and are available to American citizens living in the host country. Individuals must contact the embassy and find out when the next training date is scheduled. These workshops or courses teach the simple rules that must be followed to avoid becoming a victim of terrorism or violent crime abroad. Remember, the responsibility to learn about the availability of these courses is your own. The embassy is not going to contact all expatriate Americans and cajole them into attending the next security seminar. You need to seek out available training and learn to exercise prudence and caution while living abroad. If you are a citizen of another country, contact your own foreign affairs ministry before you travel. By all means register with your country’s embassy or consulate when you arrive in a new country.

In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the potential for attacks against American and Western citizens and interests, both at home and overseas, has become increasingly likely. At the time of this writing, 189 organizations have been identified as terrorist entities. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, at this very moment there are terrorists and their sympathizers planning acts of violence against Americans all over the world. They do not distinguish between combatants and noncombatants, between civilians or government officials, or even among men, women, and children. Virtually every intelligence agency in the world has concluded that future attacks on Americans, their interests, and their possessions are a virtual certainty. It is not a matter of “if “ but “when.” However, even in this dangerous period in history, many people employed overseas ignore the vitally important personal security issues that affect not only themselves but their families as well. Even some of the largest corporations in the United States demonstrate extraordinary apathy in this regard. Shortly after the tragic kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, the authors had dinner with an acquaintance who is an executive with a major news corporation. This man travels abroad more than he is home and frequently travels to areas that are the subject of specific terrorist threat warnings posted by the State Department. We asked him what type of training he had been given relative to his personal security while traveling. We were more than a bit surprised when he answered that he had never received any training, despite frequent trips to the Middle East, Russia, India, the Philippines, and other countries where there are real and documented security risks to foreigners. We asked if he at least had access to intelligence information regarding security issues in the countries he was traveling to. Again the answer was negative. Nor did he even bother to access the State Department website and read the posted travel advisories. He said that his company had no program in place to gather information relative to country-specific dangers that its employees might face. He said that sometimes the company provided him with a bodyguard, but for the most part he was on his own. Furthermore, the only type of intelligence gathering he knew of in private industry was commercial intelligence. He explained that most large domestic and multinational corporations routinely spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn everything they can about individuals with whom they intend to do business—a prudent concern to be sure. Big companies hire investigators to compile complete dossiers on a prospective partner’s personal habits, finances, bank accounts, romantic interests, and a variety of other confidential areas. They use excellent investigative firms, such as Kroll Worldwide, and try to obtain the same information on competitors as well. Millions of dollars are spent each year in this manner. Unfortunately, almost nothing is spent teaching employees how to be safe.

An important factor to consider is that terrorist activities are not the only source of danger Westerners must face overseas. In fact, you will have a far greater chance of becoming a victim of ordinary criminal activity than you will of becoming the target of terrorism. In many countries, there are criminal industries that thrive on victimizing foreign visitors to their country. A robbery or even a property crime against an American businessperson is almost guaranteed to provide a richer reward for their actions than crimes directed against their own fellow citizens. Fortunately, the security precautions that you should take to reduce your chance of being targeted by terrorists are also effective in deterring common street crime.

America’s corporate interests can no longer afford to be negligent with respect to security matters. The same is true for companies from the European Union. Their employees and facilities are becoming increasingly attractive targets to terrorists and criminals. Furthermore, all Western citizens, even students or tourists, must understand that they are very desirable targets to those seeking to use terror to advance their political agenda or to vent their misguided rage at the United States, Europe, or Israel. And unfortunately for high-profile executives, government officials or employees, and celebrities, the level of this particular threat increases along with the level of the status or notoriety of the individual. However, even ordinary citizens are facing risks. They are also often the first choice to the local criminal element seeking an easy target for a robbery.

Each year hundreds of Americans and Europeans are injured or killed overseas. Traffic accidents, terrorism, street crime, and disease cause most of those incidents. The events of September 11 have only made matters worse. As we complete the final editing of this book, we have just heard word of the assassination in Amman, Jordan, of Lawrence Foley, a senior U.S. Diplomat working for USAID. Mr. Foley was shot to death outside his home. Thus far, no claims of responsibility have been made nor has any assailant been identified. It seems beyond question, however, that this senseless murder was an act of political terrorism by an Islamic terrorist group. It is also too early to have received an analysis of the act and whether any security precautions could have prevented his death. On this same date, we are reading a news account published by the Jewish press entitled “How to Kidnap American Citizens.” The article describes how an extremist Islamic online forum recently posted a guide describing in detail the manner in which Americans can be kidnapped. The guide discusses how potential kidnappers can choose the best location to effect kidnapping, various methods to use, and how to gather intelligence about the intended victim. Inexplicably, although it can be found in other news sources on the Internet, this story has not been given any exposure in the mainstream media. In November 2001 nearly 200 people, mostly Australian nationals, were killed in a bombing of a night spot in Bali.

This year, hundreds more Western citizens will be robbed, assaulted, raped, kidnapped, or murdered. Most of these incidents could be prevented by adherence to basic rules of personal safety. Lives are lost needlessly because individuals do not know what to do during a fire or in a medical emergency. Money and other valuables are stolen because of simple inattention to a few commonsense security practices. Whether you are a highly placed executive managing your company’s interests abroad or a student going overseas as part of an exchange program to promote diversity and understanding, this book will provide you with the necessary information to avoid becoming another statistic in a growing ledger book. This is your commonsense approach to personal security abroad.