Biography

Charles Goslin

Charles Goslin is a retired CIA operations officer with over 35 years of experience in intelligence operations, foreign affairs, and international security and business. He lived and worked abroad for decades in India, Africa, Central & South America, Europe and the Middle East. His expertise is in human intelligence gathering, or HUMINT, operations. Charles continues actively consulting in retirement on international intelligence, security, and risk challenges faced by multinational corporations operating in some of the world’s most hostile regions. His perspective is one drawn from years working in the trenches of the third world, rather than the relative comfort of a Washington office.

Education

B.A., University of Texas at Pan American, 1981

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Personal Security (Programs, Techniques and Training), Terrorism and Radicalization, Intelligence and Counterintelligence Programs and Analysis, Security and Business Risk, Threat Assessment and Analysis for Multinational Enterprise, Security Program Development and Management.

Personal Interests

Writing (professional and fiction), history, fly fishing, and travel.

Websites

https://www.crcpress.com/authors/i15915-charles-goslin

Understanding Personal Security and Risk: A Guide for Business Travelers

Charles recently published a non-fiction book entitled “Understanding Personal Security and Risk: A Guide for Business Travelers” (CRC Press, 2017) incorporates his experience living abroad with practical personal security guidance for travelers. He has authored and published numerous white papers on security threat and risk facing the private sector internationally, and he frequently lectures on Islamic radicalism and terrorism. His insights have been solicited by national media, both broadcast and print. Before joining the CIA, he earned a B.A. at the University of Texas at Pan American, and worked full time both as a newspaper reporter and stringer for the Associated Press in South Texas. He is a military veteran who served in West Germany as a U.S. Army military intelligence specialist during the Cold War. He is fluent in Spanish.

Book Highlights

In today’s threat environment, lack of familiarity and training in personal security can leave one acutely exposed to terrorist attack, terrorist hostage takers, kidnap-for-ransom, express kidnap, and violent street crime.” 

“A good personal security plan should be a portable set of wisdom that is most critical when you or your colleagues step outside of the relatively safe confines of the workplace, the familiarity of hearth and home.  When you get on the plane or train and travel outside of the developed world into the developing world, whether by design or by accident, the principles of personal security are what will distinguish those who survive and thrive from those who become victims.”

“The reality for business travelers abroad is that the criminal or terrorist violence that so often captures the headlines is frequently not so obvious on arrival in a dangerous country.  Life does go on in hostile third-world environments, and quite often the relatively normal pace of outward life belies the actual danger that lurks beneath.  Do not be fooled by an outward appearance of normality or quiet.”
Understanding Personal Security and Risk: A Guide for Business Travelers
Paperback and eBook available

“Watson, you know my methods. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.”

-Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Boscombe Valley Mystery’

Security & Intelligence Consulting

Charles Goslin is currently an independent security consultant and advisor living in Houston, Texas. Charles provides expert guidance in the areas of security risk, intelligence and personal safety. He has extensive specialized knowledge in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Europe having lived and worked in several countries within these regions over 30 years. Charles is expert in geopolitical and transnational criminal and terrorist organizations and threat. Charles has worked extensively with both international and U.S. law enforcement agencies and the federal, state and local level on both criminal cases and counterterrorism investigations. He is a U.S. Army Intelligence veteran, and currently an active member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS), International. Charles is a lifetime member of Sigma Chi, and lectures regularly on terrorism and radicalization for groups and universities. 

 

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