Lieutenant Colonel Ron Sargent joined the faculty of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in July 2009, following three years of service as the Chief, Office of Defense Cooperation in Timor-Leste. He is a U.S. Army Southeast Asia Foreign Area Officer, and has served in a variety of command and staff assignments in his 23-year active duty career.

LTC Sargent spent most of his childhood in the Pacific Rim to include several years in both Taiwan and Hawaii. He served as an enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army from 1983 to 1989. Upon graduating from Xavier University with a Bachelors of Arts degree in political science in 1992, he went on to serve in Hawaii, the Republic of Korea, and the continental United States as both an infantry and logistics officer. In 2002 he attended the Malaysian Armed Forces Staff College in Kuala Lumpur, graduating from the University of Malaya and receiving a post-graduate diploma in Strategic and Defense Studies.

LTC Sargent received a Masters of Arts degree in International Affairs (with concentration in Southeast Asian Studies) from Ohio University in 2006. Following his arrival to Timor-Leste in May 2006, he oversaw significant growth in U.S. defense cooperation, and was also a key component of the Embassy’s engagement with the national leadership. This culminated in the Foreign Minister’s visit to both U.S. Pacific Command and the Office of the Governor of Hawaii in May 2008, and the conduct of the National Security Policy Development Workshop held at APCSS in September 2008. LTC Sargent was also integral to the Embassy’s engagement of several international organizations to include the United Nations Integrated Mission to Timor-Leste (UNMIT), and the Australian-led International Stabilization Force.