GETTING TO KNOW THE FAOA JOURNAL'S EDITORIAL BOARD
The Peer Review
The FAO Association Journal of International Affairs is a professional peer-reviewed journal; and fortunate to have many Editorial Board (EB) peer-reviewers with an outstanding breadth of experience across the FAO disciplines, coverage of the regions of the world, and the journalistic accomplishments. These factors add prestige and enhance the Journal as well as the FAO Association membership. This vignette is one in a series that will present the Editorial Board membership to the FAO Association membership so you have a sense of who is reviewing the content. Here are four of the Editorial Board peer review members, and we hope you will consider joining the Editorial Board with them in the future. If you are interested to begin the process of peer review for an article you have written or offer to help with peer review, please contact John Haseman at editor@faoa.org
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Lieutenant Colonel Kurt Degerlund is a U.S. Air Force Eurasia FAO and currently serves as the U.S. Air Attaché in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he majored in Foreign Area Studies with a minor in Russian. He holds a masters degree in International Relations. Lieutenant Colonel Degerlund is a member of the Military Writer's Guild, and has been published in the Strategy Bridge and Field Grade Leader.
Major Matt Schleupner, U.S. Army, is a European FAO with a control language of Romanian. He is stationed at the National Guard Intelligence Center in Charlottesville, Virginia where he handles a portfolio consisting of Central and Southeast Europe. Major Schleupner’s first assignment as a FAO was at Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). Previous FAO assignments included American Embassy Skopje, North Macedonia; American Embassy Rome; and NATO Headquarters. Matt’s career began as an enlisted man in the U.S. Army. Once reaching the rank of Sergeant, Major Schleupner attended ROTC and received his commission in the Adjutant General’s Corps. Major Schleupner was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (ABN) at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, where he served close to a decade, deploying to Afghanistan, the Philippines, and across Asia on Joint Combined Exchange Training exercises, to include to the Republic of Korea, the Maldives, Australia, and over 10 other countries. Major Schleupner was selected in 2019 as a Jamestown Fellow, focusing on trans-Atlantic relations and the future of NATO in U.S. policy and recently finished his time as a Harvard University Davis Center Arms Control Fellow, focusing his writing on future prospects of arms control with Iran. Major Schleupner is widely published in professional journals, including the FAO Association Journal. He received the Iron Pen award for his writings while a CGSC student, and the Foster Award for Army-level best company grade officer writing.
MAJ Schleupner - a creek by Húsavík, Iceland May 2022.
Colonel Paul Schmitt, U.S. Army, is a Russia-Eurasia FAO with 20 years of experience in FAO assignments throughout that region. Paul has the distinction of being voluntarily-extended beyond mandatory retirement who was retained on active duty at the request of the U.S. Army because of his extraordinary skills and experience. Before becoming a FAO, Colonel Schmitt was a Special Forces branch officer. His FAO assignments include Assistant Professor of Russian, U.S. Military Academy at West Point, 2000-2002; Security Cooperation Officer, Kyiv, Ukraine 2003-2005; Chief, Office of Defense Cooperation, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan 2005-2007; Defense Attaché Moldova, 2008 - 2010; Chief, Office of Defense, Tbilisi, Georgia 2010-2012; Senior Defense Official/Defense Attaché Uzbekistan 2013 - 2016; and Army Attaché Kyiv, Ukraine n 2016 - 2021. He is currently the Chief, Office of Defense Cooperation Ankara, Turkey.
Colonel Paul Schmitt relaxing at Uchkuduk (trans - three wells), Uzbekistan
Lieutenant Colonel (P) Ravi Balaram is a Southeast Asia FAO and Army Aviator who has lived, worked and traveled to over 100 countries on six continents. Ravi is the newest EB member. His FAO assignments include Director of Policy and Planning at Joint US Military Advisory Group-Thailand (JUSMAGTHAI); Acting Defense and Army Attaché U.S. Embassy Gaborone, Botswana and concurrently C-12 chief pilot for regional flight operations in Central and Southern Africa. Ravi has served in-country at tactical, operational, and strategic-policy levels in the SOUTHCOM, CENTCOM, EUCOM, AFRICOM and INDOPACOM AORs. He currently serves as Chief Performance Officer for DIA Air and Maritime Operations. Ravi’s education includes M.A. in Southeast Asia Security Studies from Georgetown School of Foreign Service, M.B.A. from University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and B.S. in Information Systems Engineering from West Point. LTC Balaram is also a graduate of the Royal Thai Army Command and General Staff College and has lectured in English and Thai at various universities. His publications include articles in Army Aviation Magazine, FAO Association Journal of International Affairs, Asian Affairs: an American Review, and the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs.
