A U.S. Navy SEALs lieutenant, Adam Schwarze has a U.S. Marines background and joined his unit through the Naval Special Warfare program. Pursuing a master’s degree at Harvard University in international studies, Adam Schwarze has a particular focus on security and counter insurgency efforts.
The U.S. Navy SEALs maintains a strong global footprint, and in September 2021 members of a SEAL team joined with Cypriot underwater demolition personnel in a joint drill focused on addressing the potential hijacking of vessels at sea. The exercise involved special forces teams from the U.S. and Cyprus working side by side in retaking a ship that had been “overtaken by terrorists.”
With the island nation situated in a turbulent part of the Mediterranean, the exercise at Limassol port was organized by the Cyprus Defense Ministry. It was one of a series of joint drills enabled through the Eastern Mediterranean Energy and Security Partnership Act, which was approved and funded by U.S. legislators in 2019.
The pact reflects the discovery of valuable offshore gas deposits in the region and partially removes a U.S. arms embargo imposed on Cyprus in 1987. The aim of this embargo was to prevent a potentially destabilizing arms ramp-up in an ethnically divided country.
