The regularly scheduled AFIO/RMC meeting is on Thursday, November 21st 2024, at 11:30.

Speaker: Jim Steiner

Topic: Intelligence Support to the NSC in deciding to go to war: Kosovo, 9/11, and today.
 
Abstract:
A brief overview of the NSC process and the traditional approach to intelligence support to the President within this process. Kosovo case study. How 9/11 changed everything. The 9/15 NSC meeting at Camp David. Intelligence support to the NSC today. What current threats could lead us into combat and the role of intelligence.

Bio:
Jim Steiner has over 50 years of experience conducting, leading, managing, evaluating, and teaching intelligence.  Following an overseas tour as a naval intelligence officer, Dr. Steiner joined the CIA in 1972 and served there for more than 33 years. For the first two decades, he focused on Soviet defense and economic issues, rising through the analytic and management ranks.  He was promoted into the Senior Intelligence Service in 1992.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Dr. Steiner moved to the Department of State as Special Advisor to the Ambassador at Large for Russia where he provided intelligence support and was the Ambassador’s Deputy for defense conversion and crime and corruption.  

Dr. Steiner then returned to CIA Headquarters where he took on a series of increasingly senior line and staff positions, including Deputy Director for Crime and Narcotics.  In his final line position, he was Director of the Office of Transnational Issues which covers global energy and economic security, corruption, illicit migration, illicit financial activity, foreign denial and deception programs, societal and humanitarian conflicts, and the medical and psychiatric analysis of foreign leaders.  His office also conducted long-term analyses on key issues including the future of warfare, globalization, terrorism, democracy, and demographics.  

Dr. Steiner completed his CIA career as the Agency’s Officer in Residence at Georgetown University.  He was awarded the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal upon his retirement in 2006.  Dr. Steiner taught intelligence analysis at the FBI Academy before moving to Albany and then taught graduate courses in intelligence at SUNY for fifteen years.

Jim attended Georgetown University from 1964-1968 earning a B.S. Foreign Service with a concentration in International Economics.  He received an M.A. in Economics in 1969 and a Ph.D. in Economics in 1977. After college, Jim served as an intelligence officer in the US Navy at SOUTHCOM in Panama.

Other RMC AFIO Topics:
Name Tags can now be ordered for a cost of $11.
Please text or email Mike McCoy with your name as you would like it displayed on the tag. Please order before September 9th and mention AFIO in the subject line.
Mike will bring the name tag to the next meeting and collect the $11.

Anthony Leto
Secretary, Rocky Mountain Chapter
AFIO

The regularly scheduled AFIO/RMC meeting is on Thursday, September 19th 2024, at 11:30.

Speaker: Dr. Ryan Burke

Topic: The Polar Vortex
 
Abstract:

The polar paradox began in the post-WWII era. The polar reaches of the Arctic and Antarctica were simultaneously valuable strategic locations for the United States and also sites of American vulnerability.

The Polar Pivot reexamines this opportunity/vulnerability dichotomy, arguing that, today, more so than in the period following World War II, the polar regions should be a primary focus of American security discourse because they are among the most likely venues for 21st century competition and conflict.

Bio:
Dr. Ryan Burke is a professor of military and strategic studies at the US Air Force Academy, an affiliate professor with the University of Alaska’s Center for Arctic Security and Resilience, and the Co-Director of Project 6633 at West Point’s Modern War Institute. Dr. Burke conducts field research in conflict zones and extreme climates, is a fellow with The Explorers Club, and is a veteran US Marine Corps officer.

Other RMC AFIO Topics:
Name Tags can now be ordered for a cost of $11.
Please text or email Mike McCoy with your name as you would like it displayed on the tag. Please order before September 9th and mention AFIO in the subject line.
Mike will bring the name tag to the next meeting and collect the $11.