Colonel Norvell B. De Atkine, U.S. Army (Retired), is a former foreign area specialist who has taught Middle Eastern political-military affairs within the special operations community for the last 17 years. A graduate of the masters program at the American University of Beirut, he lived for 8 years in the Arab world and traveled extensively throughout the region. He was the military attaché in Amman, Jordan at the time of the 1970 Jordanian civil war and director of Army programs in the Office of Military Cooperation from 1981 to1983 as Egypt began its conversion from Soviet to U.S. military armament.