About the Speaker

Rear Admiral Michael Baker, US Navy, is currently the Navy Foreign Area Officer Community Leader. A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, he is a 1995 graduate of the US Naval Academy, from where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in History, and a 2005 graduate of Istanbul Bilgi University as an Olmsted Scholar, where he was awarded a Master of Arts in International Relations.

He served as a 2010 International Affairs Fellow to the Council on Foreign Relations, and speaks Turkish and French. The admiral is a Navy Foreign Area Officer, with considerable experience in building capability and capacity in and with US partners, enabling US Coalition operations, leading Military Attaché Operations, and directing international strategy and plans, in a number of areas of responsibility of the USA’s Combatant Commands (COCOMs), including the Africa Command (AFRICOM), the European Command (EUCOM), the Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), and the Central Command (CENTCOM).

As an E-2C Hawkeye Naval Flight Officer, he deployed to the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean and to the Arabian Gulf and Saudi Arabia in support of Operation SOUTHERN WATCH. As a Foreign Area Officer, he deployed to Silopi (Turkey) and Northern Iraq, serving as liaison officer to the Turkish Special Forces in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM; and aboard the High-Speed Vessel SWIFT in the Indian Ocean to support US Naval Forces Africa Partnership Station.

His shore assignments include stints at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center as a Weapons And Tactics instructor; the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV N52) as an Asia-Pacific Political-Military Planner; AFRICOM as the director of West Africa Engagement; Senior Defense Official/Defense Attaché to Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius, and Seychelles; the Office of Defense Cooperation Turkey, where he was the Chief of Naval Cooperation; in the Defense Intelligence Agency, as Director, Defense Attaché Service – Asia Pacific Division; in Bahrain as the Assistant Chief of Staff for Strategy, Plans, and Policy (N5) for US Naval Forces CENTCOM/US 5th Fleet; as OPNAV (N51) Security Cooperation & Posture, and Chief of Staff of the Foreign Area Officer Community.