The Future of Professional Officer Education in the German Armed Forces
Abstract
In 2004, the Fuhrungsakademie der Bundeswehr released a concept for the realignment of field grade officer development. The concept claims to respond to the requirements of the contemporary and future operating environment and attempts to ensure lifelong professional education. The reform acknowledges the growing complexity of joint, interagency, and multinational strategic considerations in the aftermath of the Cold War. A key element in the Bundeswehr's response to changes in security needs is to look actively for insights into long-term changes in doctrine, concepts of operation, and organizations. In this context, the ability of the field grade officer to analyze and deal with change is crucial to the Bundeswehr's adaptation to change. Hence, the focus of this research was an assessment of the ability of the Bundeswehr's educational reform to develop and foster critical, creative and logical thinking among German officers. To assess the Bundeswehr's educational reforms it was necessary to establish criteria with which to make the assessment. The criteria were derived by comparing the skills required by the contemporary security environment and adult education theories related to the required skills. The results of the research suggest four recommendations to improve the German field grade officer's ability to learn and adapt. First, the Bundeswehr must implement a service wide synchronized professional officer education strategy that provides a detailed rationale for educational requirements. Second, the Fuhrungsakademie der Bundeswehr must incorporate learning objectives into its curricula that reflect self-directed learning and coping with complexity. Third, the Fuhrungsakademie der Bundeswehr must focus on military theory and military history that facilitates self-directed learning and coping with complexity in a professional military environment. Fina
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA523192
Entities
People
- Torsten Walter
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College