US State Department

The United States Department of State is the federal executive department responsible for US foreign policy and international relations. Headquartered in the Harry S Truman Building in Washington, DC, it operates through some 270 diplomatic posts worldwide and is led by the Secretary of State, a cabinet-level official fourth in the presidential line of succession.

UAP-Related Role

The State Department intersects with UAP history through its management of US embassies and consulates, which receive and forward host-nation UAP reports involving US personnel, installations, or aviation safety. Notable cases include State Department cable traffic on the Belgian UFO Wave, Chilean and Brazilian UAP incidents, the Algeria UFO-near-installation reports, and — at the political level — President Ronald Reagan's 'alien invasion' speech during the 1985 Geneva Summit with Mikhail Gorbachev, in which Reagan invited Soviet cooperation against a hypothetical off-world threat.

Contemporary Engagement

Since the establishment of AARO in 2022, the State Department has coordinated with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on international information-sharing arrangements relating to UAP. Cables and reporting from embassies continue to feed the US interagency picture. Historical State Department cables on UFOs were partially released through FOIA and are compiled in Dan Wright's The CIA UFO Papers (2019).