Rafael Fermoselle

Dr. Fermoselle was born in Havana, Cuba, in March 1946. His first contact with insurgency took place as he was growing up in Cuba during the 1950’s and after the Communist takeover in 1959. In 1972, he graduated with a PhD in History from American University and wrote his dissertation on a 1912 racial insurgency in Cuba. He joined the Foreign Service in 1981 and retired in 2001, a few months prior to 9/11. He served overseas for 20 years as Counselor of Embassy for Commercial Affairs in Dominican Republic, Commercial Attaché in Mexico, Counselor of Embassy in Argentina, Netherlands, and Spain, before returning to Washington for his last assignment as Division Director, for Security, of the International Trade Administration, where he coordinated security for 44 overseas sites/offices outside embassy facilities- in 39 countries.). After 9/11, he became a DOD contractor, first as a System of Systems Analysis instructor at JFCOM. He participated in TASK FORCE IV (Reconstruction of Iraq), in advanced of the invasion in 2003, and trained SOSA tams PACOM, SOUTHCOM, EUCOM and NORTHCOM during 2003 and 2004. In 2004 he moved to Germany to work as a member of the EPOC Intelligence Division, Force Application at EUCOM, and as a member of the J5/8 ORSA unit. In 2008 he deployed to Iraq as part of the US Army Human Terrain program. He has received numerous awards, including the U.S. Department of State’s Superior Honor Award in June 2000. He has published several books on a wide variety of subjects.