Educating the Post-Modern U.S. Army Strategic Planner: Improving the Organizational Construct
Abstract
The prevailing U.S. Army professional military education (PME) system reflects the legacy of the twentieth century, modern, mechanized age of warfare. The twenty-first century security environment presents a unique set of challenges for U.S. national security and military strategy. The rise of a new information-age of warfare exacerbates the perpetual dichotomy between strategic intent and tactical action in war policy. In this new age, perhaps more than ever before, the distinction between periods of peace and episodes of war has become an arbitrary distinction; war in this age is increasingly just a "continuation of politics and policy by other (all) means." Yet, the persisting PME continues to separate the martial tactical expert (the warfighter) from the extra-martial operational and strategic expert (the war- thinker), even constructing the career development profile of the Army officer corps is this bifurcated manner. Effective war policy through the integration of the full spectrum of national and multinational (coalitional) capabilities is less effectively learned under such an education and career development system. What the information-age of warfare demands is the education, training, and experienced-based learning of uniformed strategic planners' - experts well versed in the planning, management, and leadership of full spectrum, holistic war policy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 22, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA419795
Entities
People
- Isaiah Wilson
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College