Lieutenant Colonel Munir is a U.S. Army Foreign Area Officer (FAO) who is a native of Boston, Massachusetts and received received a commission from Officer Candidate School, Fort Benning, Georgia. He initially enlisted in the Army in 2005 and was commissioned as an Air Defense Artillery officer in 2006. LTC Munir is currently serving as the Chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the United States Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia. LTC Munir previously served as the Chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation in Tirana, Albania.
Prior to that he was a a Branch Chief in International Operations Division, G5, United States Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) where he oversaw U.S. Army activities across Eastern Europe. LTC Munir’s other assignments include Deputy Chief, Office of Defense Cooperation in Kyiv, Ukraine where he played a key role in the first ever Javelin missile deal for Ukraine. Prior to becoming a Foreign Area Officer, LTC Munir worked in the Pentagon on the Joint Staff and Army Staff. On the Joint Staff, he first served as the Executive Assistant to the Chairman’s Foreign Policy Advisor (POLAD) and subsequently in the Chairman’s Action Group (CAG) as a Special Assistant to the 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (General Martin Dempsey).
On the Army Staff, he served in the G-3/5/7 (DAMO-SSP) as an Army Strategist and worked on critical strategy documents for the Army.LTC Munir completed his tactical assignments in Army Space and Missile Defense Command as a Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer and Company Commander in 1st Space Company – JTAGS (Joint Tactical Ground Station). He commanded the JTAGS Detachment in CENTCOM (in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom) and the JTAGS Detachment in Misawa, Japan.
During his time in Misawa, JTAGS Japan received the Army Superior Unit Award for its direct support to “Operation Tomodachi” (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Operations for the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami). LTC Munir has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Oxford and a Master’s Degree in Policy Management from Georgetown University. He is also a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California where he studied Russian. He is also a fluent French speaker and semi-fluent Turkish speaker.