Keynote address at the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC).

• Author: Jones, David T.

Keynote Address at the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC)

By Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State

Reviewed by David T. Jones, co-author of Uneasy Neighbo(u)rs, a book on U.S.-Canada relations

Text: http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2008/11/112084.htm

Video: http://www.state.gov/video/?videoid=2642400001

The Department of State hosted a conference of the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) on November 19. Doubtless for many State employees, the swarm of "OSAC" ID badge wearers was the first time they had ever encountered the organization (and they did not bother to learn more).

Nor will they bother to read Secretary Rice's brief cameo appearance speech--the pedestrian text of which one might suspect she first encountered on her way to the Dean Acheson Auditorium.

Nevertheless, its substance reflects the unpleasant reality of the past and the equally unpleasant expectation for the future: the threat of terrorism against all American citizens overseas, be they official, business, academic, or tourist.

The OSAC, a public partnership encompassing 12 federal agencies and over 5,600 private groups, from business to academia and...