Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Winstead is a Senior Military Fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University.  Prior to his current fellowship, Lt Col Winstead served in various leadership roles on the staff of the United States Pacific Command's Operations Directorate (J3) in Hawaii.  He led a team of cross-functional experts in analyzing various complex strategic and operational challenges in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, then recommended U.S. military capabilities and strategies to meet those challenges.  Lt Col Winstead also served as the Executive Assistant to U.S. Pacific Command's Director for Operations (the 2-star officer responsible for all military operations in the Pacific theater).  Before his headquarters assignment, Lt Col Winstead commanded a C-17 airlift squadron in Hawaii, where he led over 110 military personnel in operations conducting the worldwide airlift and airdrop of cargo and people.  He is a pilot with over 3,400 flying hours in the C-17, having completed three other operational flying assignments as an instructor and evaluator pilot.  Lt Col Winstead spent the previous nine years of his 20+ year Air Force career stationed in the Asia-Pacific theater, gaining valuable tactical, operational, and strategic expertise in military operations.

Lt Col Winstead earned a B.S. in Environmental Engineering and a B.S. in Multidisciplinary Studies from North Carolina State University and a M.A. in Organizational Management from The George Washington University.

At Stanford, Lt Col Winstead seeks to examine the strategic implications of unmanned systems operations (air, sea, undersea) in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, including the impact of using these systems by all capable governments on the balance of security and escalation control calculations.  More broadly, Lt Col Winstead seeks to understand factors contributing to escalation control in a multi-lateral, multi-alliance security environment.  He is also interested in strategic messaging and information control in the Indo-Asia-Pacific.