A station chief is a government official who is the head of a team, post or function usually in a foreign country. Historically it commonly referred to the head of a defensible structure such as an

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

's residence or colonial outpost. In Germany a (station leader) was the government's chief representative in a colonial possession like South Sea Islands. It may also be used to refer to the manager of remote scientific stations such as those in the

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

and Jarvis Island, an uninhabited minor U.S. Pacific island. However, in modern times, this designation is usually used for a senior official of a certain country's Intelligence agency, stationed in a foreign country who manages all espionage operations in that country.

CIA

The Station Chief, also called Chief of Station, is the top U.S. Central Intelligence Agency official stationed in a foreign country who manages all CIA operations in that country, equivalent to a KGB

Rezident A resident spy in the world of espionage is an agent operating within a foreign country for extended periods of time. A base of operations within a foreign country with which a resident spy may liaise is known as a "station" in English and a (, 're ...

. The station chief is often a senior U.S. intelligence officer who represents the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in his or her respective foreign government, whose name may ("declared status") or may not ("undeclared status") be officially revealed to the host nation and other intelligence agencies. Former officers are not usually allowed to include their positions as station chiefs in their résumés even after their covers have been lifted. Other CIA offices in foreign countries, usually performing logistics and other support functions and subordinate to the Station, are known as Bases and are headed by Chiefs of Base.

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CIA

See also

References