The Foreign Service Journal, June 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2017 29 understanding of the military, and then to utilize those officers effectively. State Goes to School Multiple opportunities for State personnel to study or work alongside DOD personnel already exist, but as an institution we often do not make the most of those opportunities or capitalize on the skills, abilities and insights that our officers gain from spending a year in a military environment. Let’s look, for instance, at the National Defense Uni- versity, with which I have recent, firsthand experi- ence, having served as its senior vice president from October 2013 to July 2016. NDU is unique, even within Defense. It is sometimes referred to as “The Chairman’s University” because it operates under the guidance of the Chair- man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) and is required to have all the military services represented in roughly equal numbers. This is especially valuable for State Department personnel assigned to NDU, because it means that one is exposed to all of the differ- ent service cultures as opposed to just one dominant culture as would be the case, for instance, at the Army War College or the Naval War College. NDU also hosts 90 to 100 foreign military officers each year, many of whom go on to become service chiefs and ministers of defense. Officers from USAID, the intelligence community, Department of Homeland Security, Commerce and several other agencies also comprise the student body. The result is an incredibly diverse environment that exposes students to multiple agency and international perspectives. The students, all of whom are mid- career professionals, are encouraged to broaden their horizons, challenge their assumptions and build new networks. The yearlong master’s degree programs offered by each of NDU’s five colleges represent “joint” education in the broadest sense. NDU also offers the largest number of opportunities for State personnel at the FS-1/GS-15 level to get training outside of the department, although “education” is a more appropri- ate term. The distinction is compelling and was explained to me this way: Training involves teaching someone how to do A National Defense University convocation ceremony in 2014. U.S.DEPARTMENTOFDEFENSE We can only guess at how many disagreements between State and DOD never reached a crisis level because the people involved understood each other’s cultures.