Americans normally don't look to British lords for inspiration on Independence Day. But this July Fourth, with our nation at war, a strong dose of Lord Palmerston may be just what the doctor ordered. For Palmerston understood something the State Department has yet to grasp: In a dangerous world, you want to make sure your passport counts for something.

In an 1850 House of Commons speech defending his decision to blockade Greece after an Athenian mob had burned down the home of a British citizen, Palmerston put it this way: "As the Roman in days of old held himself free from indignity when he could say 'Civis Romanus Sum' ['I am a Roman citizen'], so also a British subject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and the strong arm of England will protect him against injustice and wrong."

Americans once traveled the world with a similar assurance. But respect for U.S. citizenship is not what it used to be. On this day in this space last year, we highlighted the plight of Li Shaomin, a Chinese-born American citizen who was then being detained by Beijing on trumped-up spying charges.

Mr. Li was not alone. Not only did China also detain Gao Zhan, a professor at American University in Washington, it placed her five-year-old son, Andrew--an American--in a Beijing "kindergarten" away from his mother and his American father for 26 days without notifying U.S. consular officials of their action.

Since then we have had more grisly reminders of just how vulnerable our fellow citizens overseas can be. This newspaper's Danny Pearl was murdered in Pakistan because, as his captors made brutally clear, he was a Jew and an American. Likewise in the Philippines, Martin and Gracia Burnham were kept hostage for more than a year by the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf before the Manila government rescue that freed Gracia but took her husband's life.

Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, Amjad Ramdan and Alia and Aisha Gheshayan--three American citizens--remain forbidden to leave that nation because they are women. Yet instead of demanding their release, U.S. officials from Colin Powell down through White House spokesman Ari Fleischer refer to these women as "children" and describe their plights as "custody" battles. When the U.S. government refuses to stand up for American citizens trapped in Saudi Arabia, should we really have been surprised to find the Saudis so uncooperative in the use of American bases in Saudi Arabia in the war in Afghanistan?

The point is that the U.S. has a strong national interest in letting the world know there will be dire consequences for molesting an American abroad. Scarcely two years ago 17 American sailors were killed when terrorists bombed the USS Cole, an attack that went unavenged. Since 9/11 we've learned the price of such fecklessness.

And there have been encouraging signs of a new seriousness from some parts of our government. The FBI aggressively pursued Danny Pearl's kidnappers. America pushed Manila to try to rescue the Burnhams. And just this week the Bush Administration rightly rejected an attempt to put U.S. troops in Bosnia under the threat of prosecution by the new International Criminal Court. This rejection makes just the right statement: Our troops will risk their lives to do the job, but we're not going to let Private John Smith be hauled before a court that can be counted on to put politics before justice.

It may be too much to expect State to mount a more aggressive stance than this, however much we need it, given the diplomatic incentives toward clientitis. But clearly some in Congress want one, which explains the calls to strip State of the authority to issue visas and give it to the new Department of Homeland Security. Short of this, there's also the old proposal of creating an "American desk" at State, an idea first championed by Senator Jesse Helms but also endorsed by former Secretary of State Warren Christopher during his confirmation hearings.

In his recent West Point speech, George W. Bush spoke eloquently of the need for "new thinking." "By confronting evil and lawless regimes," said the President, "we do not create a problem, we reveal a problem." And Lord Palmerston would know just where to start.