Officer Professional Development for Service in Multinational Organizations

Abstract

This monograph asserts that an officer professional development model that emphasizes postgraduate education and broadening assignments best prepares officers for service in multinational organizations. A review of the literature shows that existing research primarily focuses on officer development for service in the U.S. joint arena or for service as a strategic leader, and not so much for service in multinational organizations. A brief synopsis of the history of officer professional development, beginning with the developments that occurred following the Spanish-American War and concluding with the official Army boards that followed World War II, establishes the ever-changing environment that is U.S. officer development. This is an important section because it establishes a baseline understanding of officer development in the 20th century, and it provides background perspective concerning the careers of the officers discussed in the case studies that follow. The Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) is the senior U.S. military officer serving in NATO and represents what multinational service should ideally resemble. To provide the evidence needed to support the monograph's thesis, the careers of several successful officers were examined. The data generated by considering how the variables of education, developmental assignments, executive-level assignments, and relationships prepared them for multinational service enabled a subjective assessment of their careers and the elements that shaped them. Lastly, a comparison of the officers made it possible to make recommendations as to which variables best prepared them for service as SACEUR, and therefore for service in a multinational organization. The conclusion provides a brief assessment of the U.S. Army's professional development methodology for the 21st century with recommendations on how to improve it so that future generations of officers are best prepared for service in multinational organizations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 17, 2012
Accession Number
ADA566698

Entities

People

  • Christopher J. Wehri

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artillery
  • Doctrine
  • Foreign Relations
  • Instructors
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Military Education
  • Military Science
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Professional Development
  • Second World War
  • Students
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • International Relations and European Studies
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Naval Personnel Management