Brian Driscoll and Steven Kochevar discuss U.S. Law Enforcement in Foreign Affairs

Yale Jackson's Blue Center for Global Strategic Assessment continued its “Co-Lectures in the Theory and Practice of Statecraft” series with a March 26, 2026, discussion on “U.S. Law Enforcement in Foreign Affairs.” The lecture featured Steven Kochevar, a lecturer at the University of Chicago School of Law with experience in data and national security law, and Brian Driscoll, Jackson Senior Fellow and former interim director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Driscoll opened the session by providing a practitioner’s perspective, drawing on his experience at the FBI to illustrate how legal requirements and frameworks function in real-world operations. He detailed several high-risk detentions he had personally participated in, including in war zones like Syria. He also described the Bureau’s international footprint generally, including legal attaché offices and joint task forces with foreign partners, noting that modern threats — ranging from cybercrime to terrorism — require deeply integrated cooperation across jurisdictions. “No major investigation that you are a part of as a law enforcement agent happens alone,” he explained. “Any significant operation, any real success, you always have as part of a broader team.”

Kochevar’s current scholarship focuses on data and the criminal law. Previously, he spent seven years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he worked on several national security matters. Kochevar drew on Driscoll’s anecdotes to highlight some of the conceptual challenges posed by law enforcement involvement in foreign affairs. In particular, he noted the degree to which law enforcement — which typically involves a vast array of federal and state agencies interacting with courts — occupies a different place in the constitutional scheme than foreign affairs — which is more centered on the federal executive branch.  “Law enforcement activity doesn’t necessarily sit comfortably with foreign affairs in constitutional terms,” he explained. “But there are real reasons both why law enforcement professionals might need to get involved in foreign affairs—for example, to reach a suspect that they might otherwise not be able to get to. And similarly, there are reasons why foreign policy-makers might want to make use of law enforcement as a tool.”

A central theme of the discussion was the role of institutional partnerships in law enforcement. Participants highlighted that even domestic law enforcement operations often involve collaboration between local, state, and federal authorities, multiple different agencies, and interplay between law enforcement agents, prosecutors, and the courts. Layering on foreign relations considerations — such as intelligence gathering, diplomatic constraints, or work with military partners — only further complicates the picture.

Driscoll, who currently teaches a course at the Jackson School on U.S. law enforcement, also answered general audience questions about his career. Much of his time at the FBI was spent as a member — and eventually the commander — of the Bureau’s elite Hostage Rescue Team, the nation’s premier domestically oriented hostage rescue and counterterrorism force. “When I later went on to occupy senior roles,” Driscoll explained, “I was fortunate to have built up credibility over the course of years, having been the guy on the ground, and having done the things I was now asking others to do.”

Overall, the speakers painted a comprehensive picture of U.S. law enforcement in foreign affairs as a central — but legally and operationally complex — component of modern statecraft, one that sits at the intersection of law, diplomacy, and national security.

The Blue Center’s lecture series pairs practitioners from government and industry with Yale professors and scholars to deliver joint, hour-long lectures on subjects of mutual expertise. Practitioners discuss events or policy initiatives in which they participated, and academics cover related insights or results generated by their research.

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