Rear Admiral Michael Studeman
Director of Intelligence, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command
Michael Studeman is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, the Naval Postgraduate School, the Naval War College, and a graduate in Mandarin Chinese from the Defense Language Institute.
He served as an air intelligence officer for an attack squadron and aboard the USS Saratoga during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He was also assistant staff intelligence officer for the U.S. 7th Fleet aboard USS Blue Ridge and assistant chief of staff for intelligence with Carrier Strike Group 8 aboard USS Eisenhower in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Ashore, he led analytic divisions at the Fleet Ocean Surveillance Facility in Spain in support of Balkan operations. He was the first chief of the Pacific Command Studies Team, Joint Intelligence Operations Center, Hawaii; the first senior intelligence officer for China, Office of Naval Intelligence; and first director, Commander’s Initiative Group, U.S. Fleet Forces Command. He also served as a White House Fellow, special assistant to the Chief of Intelligence of the Department of Homeland Security, strategic issues lead for the Navy’s Quadrennial Defense Review Team, and other assignments in Washington.
His commands include the Hopper Information Services Center in Maryland, and Joint Intelligence Operations Center, U.S. Cyber Command, at Fort Meade, Maryland. He was also director of intelligence, U.S. Southern Command, Miami, Florida. His current assignment as Director of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is based in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In the News…
Rear Admiral Michael Studeman, director of intelligence for the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific Command, arrived unannounced in Taiwan for intelligence-sharing talks with the island’s government, which has been a major target of Chinese military intimidation attempts in recent months.
In the past, visits to Taiwan by senior military officers were blocked due to concerns such activity might upset relations with Beijing. China considers Taiwan a renegade province that will eventually join the mainland.
The day before he arrived on a charter aircraft at Taipei, a Navy guided-missile destroyer sailed through the disputed Taiwan Strait.
The visit by Admiral Studeman and the passage by the destroyer comes at a time of political uncertainty in the U.S. It is suggested the move is a signal from the Trump Administration that China must avoid any miscalculations about the U.S. or its commitment to Taiwan.
