Michael Meese

Brigadier General Michael Meese (U.S. Army, Retired), Ph.D., FLMI, teaches SEST-6644, Economics of War as an Adjunct Professor in the Security Studies Program. He is also the President of the American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association (AAFMAA), the longest standing non-profit that assists the American Armed Forces community with insurance, financial planning, survivor assistance, and other benefits. In 2013, after 32 years in the Army, he retired from his position as the Professor and Head of the Department of Social Sciences at West Point. There he taught economics and national security courses and led the 70 military and civilian faculty members in the Department, the Combating Terrorism Center, and the Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis, who teach political science, economics, and terrorism-related courses. He has also served as a Visiting Professor at Princeton University, Visiting Distinguished Research Fellow at the National Defense University (NDU) Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), and as a member of the National War College Faculty. In addition to teaching, he served in a variety of strategic political-military positions including deployments to combat zones for over 31 months. In 2010-2011, he deployed for a full year as the Assistant Chief of Staff for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan having previously served in Iraq as a senior policy advisor for Commanding Generals on four separate three-month tours, including developing the “responsible withdrawal” plan in 2009, the strategic assessment in summer 2007, and “the surge” campaign plan in early 2007. In Washington, he was the Executive Director of the Secretary of the Army’s Transition Team in 2005 and was co-director of the Department of Defense Panel on Commercialization and Globalization (the Dawkins Panel) in 1999. He has written and lectured extensively on national security and economics including the books American National Security and the Armed Forces Guide to Personal Financial Planning. He is a graduate of the National War College, U.S. Military Academy, and holds a Ph.D., MPA and an M.A. from Princeton University.