Mayer Nudell

Mayer Nudell is a former foreign service officer of the State Department who was appointed in 1975, served in El Salvador and Nicaragua, was listed in the department's counterterrorism office in 1984 and later worked as a consultant on crisis management and emergency planning. He co-wrote two books on hostage-taking and crisis management with Norman Antokol, a State Department officer who was listed with him in the same counterterrorism office.

Foreign Service career

A list of Foreign Service nominations submitted to the Senate in September 1975 places "NUDELL, Mayer" under appointments as FSO-7, consular officers and secretaries. The August-September 1975 issue of the department's Newsletter lists "Nudell, Mayer, JOC" among new appointments, and the August 1975 Foreign Service List gives his entry as "STATE (R-7) trng."¹

The department's Newsletter for 1978 lists "Nudell, Mayer, San Salvador to Managua." The Newsletter for 1980 lists "Nudell, Mayer, Managua to Inter-American Affairs."² An issue of the department's magazine State for 1981 lists Nudell among Class FS-4 officers recommended for tenure by the Commissioning and Tenure Board.³

In June 1990 CounterTerrorism Consultants, L.P. described Nudell, in a resume packet, as "A veteran foreign service officer with special expertise in counterterrorism." The firm said he held posts in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and served in the State Department's Bureau of Inter-American Affairs and Office of Counterterrorism and Emergency Planning. It listed two Group Meritorious Honor Awards from the department, a Distinguished Leadership Award from the American Biographical Institute and a Certificate of Appreciation from the Washington chapter of the American Society for Industrial Security. It gave his degrees as a B.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University, an M.S. in international public administration from the University of Southern California and a Certificat d'Assiduite from the University of Grenoble, and his training as including the Foreign Service Institute, the police reserve program of the Washington, D.C. Police Academy and FBI seminars on hostage negotiation and victimology.⁴

Office for Combatting Terrorism, 1983 to 1984

The department's telephone directory for January 1984 lists "Nudell; Mayer" under the office symbol M/CT. In a section headed "Assistant Coordinator for Security Policies and Programs," the same directory lists International Relations Officers, with Mayer Nudell for Near East and South Asia and Norman Antokol for Europe and Africa.⁵ The January 1985 directory lists "Antokol; Norman" under the same office symbol and carries no Nudell entry.⁶

The 1984 volume of State carries the office's news column. It reports that Nudell, Antokol, John Coffman and Deven McConnell took part in a hostage negotiation seminar taught by a FBI Academy instructor, Fred Lancely, on November 9 to 11, and that Coffman and Nudell attended a civil aviation security course at the Federal Aviation Administration Academy in Oklahoma City from November 28 to December 2. The same column reports that Nudell traveled to Anchorage, Alaska, from January 10 to 14 to brief Federal Aviation Administration, Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI officials on terrorism matters and to address the regional meeting of the American Society for Industrial Security, and, in the April 1984 issue, that he traveled to Islamabad from March 21 to 29 for consultations on emergency action planning.⁷

The August-September 1984 issue of State lists, under "Resignations (June)," "Nudell, Mayer, Office for Combatting Terrorism."⁸

Institute on Terrorism and Subnational Conflict

The firm's 1990 packet described Nudell as formerly the executive director of the Institute on Terrorism and Subnational Conflict, and as an instructor for the General Services Administration training center. It adds that he chaired the Public Safety and Human Relations Advisory Commission for the City of Falls Church, Virginia.⁴

The proceedings of the Conference on Securing Installations Against Car-Bomb Attack, held in Arlington, Virginia on May 15 to 17, 1986, and sponsored by the Defense Research Institute, were edited by Michael Wm. Davis. Its attendee roster lists "Institute on Terrorism and Subnational Conflict," with "Mr. Mayer Nudell" as "Executive Director," at a Falls Church address.⁹

Counter Terrorism Consultants, 1990

The June 1990 packet lists Nudell as a "CTC associate" and says that he "advises CTC clients on contingency planning and crisis management." It gives his memberships as the American Foreign Service Association, the American Society for Industrial Security (where, the packet says, he chairs the Washington chapter's Terrorist Action Subcommittee), the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the International Counterterrorism and Security Association.⁴ The same page carries a handwritten margin note reading "FSO."⁴

Writings

The Lexington Books volume The Handbook for Effective Emergency and Crisis Management, published in Lexington, Massachusetts in 1988, is catalogued with Nudell as first author and Antokol as second. It has 192 pages, plates and an index.¹⁰ The 1988 volume of State, in a notice of the Foreign Service Institute's Political Training Division, describes Antokol as the division's deputy coordinator and as co-author of a book titled Emergency Planning and Crisis Management.¹¹

No One a Neutral: Political Hostage-Taking in the Modern World, published by Alpha Publications of Ohio in Medina, Ohio in 1990, is catalogued with Antokol as first author and Nudell as second. It has 248 pages. Its appendices include foreign hostages in Lebanon, selected terrorism statistics, pros and cons of ransom payments, United Nations conventions on hostage-taking, and a "minimanual of the urban guerrilla."¹²

State described the same book in a 1990 notice that calls Antokol "Political training deputy director." The notice says that the book was co-authored with "former U.S. diplomat Mayer Nudell," and describes it as a history of terrorism since World War II, especially hostage-taking, which suggests how to negotiate with hostage-takers.¹³

A Nudell and Antokol article, "Negotiating for Life," appeared in Security Management 34 (July 1990), pages 57 to 64 and 66. A 1992 thesis by Captain Stephen W. Di Rito of the Air Force Institute of Technology, "Response to Hostage Taking for Medium and Small Size Law Enforcement Agencies," cites the article and describes the authors' three phases of hostage situations.¹⁴

The Air University Library index to military periodicals for 1990 lists "Literature on terrorism: 1989" under Nudell's name, in the Marine Corps Gazette, volume 74, number 4 (April 1990), pages 74 to 76. The same index lists the book No one a neutral as a review with Antokol and Nudell as joint authors, and indexes it under Antokol and Nudell in Defense & Diplomacy, volume 8, number 9 (September 1990), page 34.¹⁵

Later career

In a June 2015 book review in Security Management, the magazine of ASIS, Nudell is identified in the reviewer note as "an independent consultant on crisis management, contingency planning, and related issues." The note adds that he is "an adjunct professor at Webster University and a member of ASIS," and that he is "coauthor of The Handbook of Effective Emergency and Crisis Management."¹⁶

Public appearances

The packet says that Nudell "has appeared as an expert on counterterrorism and the handling of hostage situations" on television and radio programs, and at colleges and governmental and corporate seminars, including a threat assessment and intelligence symposium before the 1988 Winter Olympics.⁴

On April 26, 1995, at a Common Hour in the Anita Tuvin-Schlechter Auditorium of Dickinson College, a discussion titled "America: Target for Terrorism" was sponsored by the Clarke Center. The college archive lists Nudell with the affiliation "International Association of Counterterrorism and Security Professionals," together with Stefan Presser of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.¹⁷