Starr also served as the acting Assistant Secretary of State for DS from October 2007 to July 2008.

His overseas assignments include Senior Regional Security Officer (RSO) at the U.S. Embassy to Israel (1997–2000), and Regional Security Officer positions in Tunisia, Senegal and Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo).

In January 2013 Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the interim replacement for Mr. Starr.

On July 31, 2013, President Obama announced that he was formally nominating Mr. Starr for Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.

[5] On November 27, 2018, several international media reported that a secret UN-report, chaired by Mr. Starr, about the killing of UN specialists Zaida Catalán and Michael Sharp in Congo march 2017, buried evidence suggesting that Congolese authorities may have been involved in the murder.