Joe Buff

Website: www.joebuff.com
Residence : Red Hook, NY (Mid-Hudson Valley)

Biographical information

Joe Buff is the son of a Cold War-era Navy Seabee, and the nephew of a WWII-era merchant mariner. A former partner in a top-10 global management consulting firm, for a decade now Joe has worked as an independent risk analyst and professional writer/speaker on national security and defense preparedness. At the U.S. Navy’s invitation, he has been underway on the fast-attack sub USS Miami, the Tomahawks/SEALs land-strike nuclear sub USS Ohio, and the Marine amphibious assault carrier USS Iwo Jima. He has many good friends and contacts throughout the Submarine Force, the Navy at large, and veterans associations. Three of his non-fiction articles in The Submarine Review received annual literary awards from the Naval Submarine League, including 2006 First Prize for "Will China Rule the Waves?" Joe does a regular column about naval trends and concerns for Military.com -- the premier Web site for the military community and for civilian supporters/enthusiasts, with more that 5,000,000 registered members. He is also a national bestselling author of six near-future tales featuring nuclear submariners and special ops forces in action at their bravest and best.

Joe grew up in New York City and holds a BA in math from New York University, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He also holds an MS in math from MIT, earned under a very prestigious National Science Foundation fellowship. He worked as a paid intern at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Previously a qualified actuary for twenty years, with extensive experience at interpreting policy implications of dire "what if" scenarios, he is now a member of the non-partisan Society for Risk Analysis, an international scholarly body headquartered in McLean, VA.

Discussion topics

• Vital Purposes of U.S. Sea Power in the 21^st Century: Why we need a strong Navy now.
• Can America Still Afford a World Class Navy?: Deficits, cuts threaten national security.
• The Navy and Homeland Defense: Naval power as a counter-terror and anti-piracy tool.
• Will China Rule the Waves?: Potential threat of China’s rising sea power muscle.
• Subs in the Long War on Terror: Vital covert roles played by American subs and SEALs.
• Why Subs Matter Now: Advanced stealth, sensors, weapons lead to amazing mission tasks.
• Submarine Budgets, Contractor Base: Too-low Pentagon funding - Crises today, tomorrow.

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