ABSTRACT
The emergence of many new states and the creation of a large number of international institutions in the last fifty or sixty years has resulted in a considerable growth in the volume of diplomatic activity and, consequently, the number of persons endowed with diplomatic status. The first major attack on diplomatic premises after the conclusion of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 was the 1965 attack on the US Embassy in Saigon, in which three Embassy employees were killed. As terrorists have widened their range of legitimate targets, fewer attacks have been perpetrated on diplomatic personnel. It is submitted that the declaration of the so-called war on terror has served to place diplomatic personnel around the world on the frontline of that war. The principal target was the United States of America. Diplomatic personnel are specifically charged with the process of developing, formulating, and implementing states foreign policy.
