Blake HerzingerBlake D. Herzinger is a security and policy practitioner who has lived and worked in Asia since 2012. In the U.S. Navy Reserve, he served as a Foreign Area Officer specializing in the Indo-Pacific, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia. He has suported Commander, Naval Forces Korea and served as a Theater Security Cooperation Desk Officer assigned to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. From 2019-2020 he deployed to the Persian Gulf aboard USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3), leading an unmanned aerial vehicle unit and intelligence detachment. Previously, Blake spent ten years on active duty as an Intelligence Officer with deployments supporting Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya, to the western Pacific on anti-submarine operations, and as the head of the Maritime Liaison Unit in Singapore until 2017. In his civilian career, he helped to design and launch the Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Initiative, expanding U.S. security assistance from a handful of Southeast Asian countries to the South Pacific and South Asia, delivering equipment and training to regional navies and coast guards to counter illicit and malign activity at sea. He serves on the editorial board of the Foreign Area Officers Association Journal and earned his MSc at the Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School for International Studies. Read More Read Less