Joseph M. Humire serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Western Hemisphere Affairs, overseeing U.S. defense and security policy for Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. He previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Homeland Defense Integration and Defense Support of Civil Authorities, overseeing DOW's support to federal law enforcement and defending the southern border.

Previously, Mr. Humire was a leading national security and defense expert on Transregional Threats in the Western Hemisphere. He testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress, as well as the Canadian and European Parliament, on counter-transnational organized crime, counterterrorism, border security, homeland defense, and developing strategies to deter and deny adversarial influence from growing in Latin America and the Caribbean. Mr. Humire also served as an expert witness in important international terrorism trials in South America.

For 13 years, from 2012 - 2025, Mr. Humire was the executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS), a think tank he formed as an industry leader to combat transregional threats in Latin America and the Caribbean. He was also a Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation's Allison Center for National Security and a Senior Fellow at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), where he helped establish AFPI's first Western Hemisphere Initiative.

Mr. Humire is an author, publishing his first book in 2014 on Iran's Strategic Penetration of Latin America with publisher Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, and is working on his second book titled China's Strategic Encroachment of Latin America (forthcoming). In 2019, Mr. Humire wrote the foreword and a chapter in the last book by his late mentor, Dr. Max G. Manwaring, titled Confronting the Evolving Global Security Landscape, published by Praeger Security International.

Mr. Humire is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, having served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, helping recover from the battlefield the remains of Marines Killed In Action to receive a proper military burial. He graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Economics and Global Affairs. Mr. Humire's unique blend of military experience, economics education, and expertise in asymmetric warfare offers a unique perspective to Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs grounded in an America First policy perspective and American values and leadership.