RADM Paul Becker, Joint Staff J2

About

Rear Admiral Paul Becker, the Joint Staff Director for Intelligence, J2, will speak on key intelligence issues facing the military and nation.

RADM Becker has served as the Director for Intelligence (J2) on the Joint Chiefs of Staff since September 2013. Previous flag assignments include Director for Intelligence with United States Pacific Command in Hawaii, Vice Director of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C., and Director of Intelligence for the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command in Afghanistan.

He was commissioned an intelligence officer upon graduation from the Naval Academy in 1983. In his service since, he has had duty both afloat and ashore as an intelligence officer in the Pacific region, Afghanistan, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. He served as the Assistant U.S. Naval Attaché at the American Embassy in Paris and completed an assignment at the American Embassy in Skopje, Macedonia as the Assistant Defense Attaché (during Operation Allied Force).

Becker is the recipient of the National Military Intelligence Association’s Rufus Taylor Award for Leadership, the U.S. Army’s Knowlton Award for Military Intelligence and the Office of Naval Intelligence’s Edwin Layton Award for Leadership.

He’s authored articles on military intelligence and leadership that have been published in Proceedings, Naval Intelligence Professionals Quarterly, Vanguard and Jewish War Veterans magazines. Becker holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (2001), and diplomas from the Defense Language Institute (1991), the Naval Command and Staff College (1993), and Armed Forces Staff College (1996). He was a Federal Executive Fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

This seminar is off the record and comments cannot be recorded or published without the consent of the speaker. The seminar is open to Harvard students, fellows, faculty and ID card holders.