History Main / DiplomaticCoverSpy

** The premise involves the aforementioned Twilight having to pretend himself as a sufficiently upper-class Ostanian and part of the nuclear family. His "wife"'s brother Yuri is a civil servant at the Ostanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Twilight [[DiscussedTrope opined]] that Yuri's occupation already had him on high alert because it is the perfect cover job. Sure, Yuri is actually an officer of Ostanian SecretPolice.

* In ''Film/ThirteenDays'', during the UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis the Kennedy Administration is alerted to Alexander Fomin, officially a counsul at the Soviet embassy in Washington but actually the highest-ranking [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre KGB]] spy in the US. Fomin has regular monthly lunches with John Scali, an ABC News correspondent and through which the idea of a deal to resolve the Crisis peacefully is raised (US promises to never invade Cuba, Soviets agree to withdraw missiles) to the White House. There is concern that the offer isn't genuine, due to both the opaque nature of the entire Soviet government's bureaucracy (especially when it comes to spies) which makes it difficult for the Kennedy administration to determine who exactly Fomin is speaking on behalf of -- the KGB? Khrushchev himself? Just completely making it all up? -- and the [[DiplomaticBackChannel backchannel]] nature of the whole thing making it deniable. A late-night search of the FBI's archives on Fomin reveals circumstantial evidence that Fomin and Khrushchev both served near Moscow in 1942 during the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Great Patriotic War]] and both had tended to rise through the ranks of the Soviet bureaucracy in step with each other in the years since. With the idea that you don't become the Soviet Union's top spy in the US without knowing someone, O'Connell makes the call that Fomin is acting as Khrushchev's messenger and that the offer is genuine -- Kennedy then makes the call for Scali to meet Fomin again with the message "The US is ready to make a deal".

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* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': WISE (the Westalian intelligence agency) operates out of their country's embassy in Ostania, and [[DeepCoverAgent Twilight]]'s {{Handler}} is officially an attaché at the embassy.

* In ''Film/ThirteenDays'', during the UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis the Kennedy Administration is alerted to Alexander Fomin, officially a counsul at the Soviet embassy in Washington but actually the highest-ranking [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre KGB]] spy in the US. Fomin has regular monthly lunches with John Scali, an ABC News correspondent and through which the idea of a deal to resolve the Crisis peacefully is raised (US promises to never invade Cuba, Soviets agree to withdraw missiles) to the White House. There is concern that the offer isn't genuine, due to both the opaque nature of the entire Soviet government's bureaucracy (especially when it comes to spies) which makes it difficult for the Kennedy administration to determine who exactly Fomin is speaking on behalf of -- the KGB? Khrushchev himself? Just completely making it all up? -- and the backchannel nature of the whole thing making it deniable. A late-night search of the FBI's archives on Fomin reveals circumstantial evidence that Fomin and Khrushchev both served near Moscow in 1942 during the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Great Patriotic War]] and both had tended to rise through the ranks of the Soviet bureaucracy in step with each other in the years since. With the idea that you don't become the Soviet Union's top spy in the US without knowing someone, O'Connell makes the call that Fomin is acting as Khrushchev's messenger and that the offer is genuine -- Kennedy then makes the call for Scali to meet Fomin again with the message "The US is ready to make a deal".

* In ''Film/ThirteenDays'', during the UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis the Kennedy Administration is alerted to Alexander Fomin, officially a counsul at the Soviet embassy in Washington but actually the highest-ranking [[MoscowCentre KGB]] spy in the US. Fomin has regular monthly lunches with John Scali, an ABC News correspondent and through which the idea of a deal to resolve the Crisis peacefully is raised (US promises to never invade Cuba, Soviets agree to withdraw missiles) to the White House. There is concern that the offer isn't genuine, due to both the opaque nature of the entire Soviet government's bureaucracy (especially when it comes to spies) which makes it difficult for the Kennedy administration to determine who exactly Fomin is speaking on behalf of -- the KGB? Khrushchev himself? Just completely making it all up? -- and the backchannel nature of the whole thing making it deniable. A late-night search of the FBI's archives on Fomin reveals circumstantial evidence that Fomin and Khrushchev both served near Moscow in 1942 during the UsefulNotes/GreatPatrioticWar and both tended to rise through the ranks of the Soviet bureaucracy in step with each other. With the idea that you don't become the Soviet Union's top spy in the US without knowing someone, O'Connell makes the call that Fomin is acting as Khrushchev's messenger and that the offer is genuine -- Kennedy then makes the call for Scali to meet Fomin again with the message "The US is ready to make a deal".

* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'': In several games, spies can act as diplomats, or diplomats can be converted to spies, though they can't be officially both at the same time.

Embassies are the perfect place to run intelligence operations from, at least in fiction. The host nation can't really get in there, everybody is protected by DiplomaticImpunity and they have lots of excuses to move around and talk to various political and economic players. In addition, such a role grants the local spy network a secure line of communication back to their home network - any intelligence they gather themselves or get passed to them from spies without cover can be placed in the diplomatic bag and couriered home without fear of search or seizure. There is a tendency for these diplomatic spies to lurk on the second rank of the diplomatic hierarchy, on the attaché level. Attachés are less visible and more easily replaced than ambassadors while still having the clout and diplomatic immunity to be difficult for the host nation to get rid off unless they're caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar, making them (again, at least in fiction) the ideal cover job for a spy. Their official job roles also tend to be somewhat nebulous and ill-understood (how many people can say that they actually know what a cultural attaché ''does'', for example?), making it easy to write them into just about any situation imaginable.

* Quite common in Creator/TomClancy's works:
** ''Literature/RedRabbit'': Once the US confirms they have a potential defector, the plan is to get him out via their CIA network in Bulgaria. Unfortunately, before that happens, a chance encounter burns the CIA station chief, a minor diplomat at the US embassy in Budapest. Since he has diplomatic immunity, the Hungarians can't hold him without causing an incident, but they do banish him from the country, effectively putting the entire station there out of business. The Americans then have to get the defector (the titular Rabbit) out with help from the British. This book also features the chronologically first appearance of Ed Foley, who is CIA's Chief of Station in Moscow, whose cover is press attache to the local US Embassy, a role he continues through the chronologically later but earlier written ''Literature/TheHuntForRedOctober'' (where he is mentioned but never appears) and ''Literature/TheCardinalOfTheKremlin''.

Embassies are the perfect place to run intelligence operations from, at least in fiction. The host nation can't really get in there, everybody is protected by DiplomaticImpunity and they have lots of excuses to move around and talk to various political and economic players. There is a tendency for these diplomatic spies to lurk on the second rank of the diplomatic hierarchy, on the attaché level. Attachés are less visible and more easily replaced than ambassadors while still having the clout and diplomatic immunity to be difficult for the host nation to get rid off unless they're caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar, making them (again, at least in fiction) the ideal cover job for a spy. Their official job roles also tend to be somewhat nebulous and ill-understood (how many people can say that they actually know what a cultural attaché ''does'', for example?), making it easy to write them into just about any situation imaginable.

** ''Literature/RedRabbit'': Once the US confirms they have a potential defector, the plan is to get him out via their CIA network in Bulgaria. Unfortunately, before that happens, a chance encounter burns the CIA station chief, a minor diplomat at the US embassy in Budapest. Since he has diplomatic immunity, the Hungarians can't hold him without causing an incident, but they do banish him from the country, effectively putting the entire station there out of business. The Americans then have to get the defector (the titular Rabbit) out with help from the British.
** ''Literature/TheCardinalOfTheKremlin'': Ed Foley is a low-ranking staffer at the US Embassy in Moscow who's actually one of the CIA's key agents in the USSR.
** ''Literature/TheHuntForRedOctober'': The CIA's Moscow station chief is the embassy's press attache.

** In "A Hiding to Nothing", [=CI5=] arrest a supposed Spanish journalist for spying. He turns out to be the 'cultural attaché' at the Israeli embassy.

->'''Leia:''' The Imperial Senate will not sit still for this. When they hear you've attacked a diplomatic-\\

->-- From ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope''

* In several of the ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' games, spies can act as diplomats, or diplomats can be converted to spies, though they can't be officially both at the same time.

* In ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'', Wando Sleeps, the head of the Ankh-Morpork consulate in Uberwald, is this kind of diplomat. The embassy turns out to have a hidden room full of spy equipment and files, and Mr. Sleeps himself has been busy sneaking around and poking at the conspiracy building up in the area. Unfortunately for him, the local werewolves don't really believe in Diplomatic Immunity.
* In ''Literature/GoodOmens'', this trope is so prevalent in London's St.James Park that the local ducks have learned to recognize the various diplomat-slash-spies and go for the ones who usually bring the best bread.

* In ''Manga/SpyXFamily'', WISE (the Westalian intelligence agency) operates out of their country's embassy in Ostania, and [[DeepCoverAgent Twilight]]'s {{Handler}} is officially an attaché at the embassy.

* ''Literature/XWingSeries: Starfighters of Admumar'': Wedge discovers that the agent in charge of the New Republic's intelligence assets on Adumar is [[spoiler:Tomer Darpen, the official head of the New Republic's diplomatic mission to the planet.]]

-->'''Leia:''' The Imperial Senate will not sit still for this. When they hear you've attacked a diplomatic-
-->'''Vader:''' Don't act so surprised, Your Highness. You weren't on any mercy mission this time. Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by Rebel spies. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you.
-->'''Leia:''' I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan.
-->'''Vader:''' You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor. Take her away!

-->-- From ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope''

See also CovertGroupWithMundaneFront.