Strategic Studies Institute
United States Army War College
Lieutenant Colonel (USAF) Michael B. Meyer
Phone: (210)771-9449 cell
Email Lieutenant Colonel (USAF) Michael B. Meyer
Lieutenant Colonel (USAF) Michael B. Meyer is the 2008-09 academic year Air Force National Defense Fellow in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. During the fellowship, he has specialized in cultural intelligence and public diplomacy. He is an intelligence officer and a political-military specialist, with a focus on the Middle East. Lieutenant Colonel Meyer was the Air Attaché in Damascus, Syria, and later the political advisor to the Commander, U.S. Central Command Air Forces. He commanded an Air Force recruiting squadron and was the deputy group commander of the Air Force’s first network warfare group. Lieutenant Colonel Meyer is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, holds an MA from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, and attended the Air Command and Staff College in Montgomery, Alabama.
*The above information may not be current. It was current at the time when the individual worked for SSI or was published by SSI.
SSI books and monographs by Lieutenant Colonel (USAF) Michael B. Meyer
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A History of Socio-Cultural Intelligence and Research Under the Occupation of Japan
April 15, 2009
Authored by Lieutenant Colonel (USAF) Michael B. Meyer.
As the Army explores how to incorporate anthropological and sociological researchers into reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the author discusses how General Douglas MacArthur and his staff fused together the work of military socio-cultural intelligence analysts with civilian academic sociologists to rebuild Japan. To understand what mattered most to the Japanese as Americans entered a then-presumably precarious situation (this was not Germany with its western mindset and traditions), intelligence analysts’ role was seminal during the early, demilitarization phase of rebuilding Japan. Sociologists, working closely with Japanese nationals, contributed significantly to the democratization phase. This was perhaps the first time in American history that sociological research supplemented traditional intelligence analysis in informing occupational leaders.