The Foreign Service Journal, November 2008

The National War College Through the 1950s, the National War College was regarded as offering the premier professional military edu- cation program for the United States Department of Defense. The stu- dents were carefully selected by their services for their demonstrated po- tential for continued service at higher grades and in positions of greater responsibility. They were colonels in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, and captains from the Navy. As such, they typically had more than 20 years of service, making them eli- gible to retire. The student body was augmented by members of other executive branch departments, inclu- ding the Department of State. The program consisted of expo- sure to leaders of the Defense De- partment, the foreign affairs estab- lishment, think-tanks, and academics from respected universities. Addi- tionally, with extra effort, the students received a master’s degree in interna- tional affairs from The George Washington University. All partici- pants traveled together all over the world, in military aircraft dedicated for their use, visiting allied and non- aligned countries. In the 1960s, for a combination of reasons, graduates of the National War College began to retire shortly after completing the program. (Re- member that most were retirement- eligible when they began the course.) They took their NWC diplomas and GWU master’s degrees and parlayed them into second careers, creating a brain drain of these talented officers with no payback for their year of expensive professional education. Defense officials took action to counter this exodus of gifted officers. First, they lowered the grade of the students to lieutenant colonel in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, and commander in the Navy. Second, they ceased the virtually automatic master’s degree arrangement with GWU. Third, they established a two- year period of obligated service fol- lowing graduation. And fourth, they reduced the extensive world travel of the course. Other reforms followed in the 1980s and 1990s to increase the academic rigor of the course and to bring it into line with the require- ments of the Goldwater-Nichols Act. Canada’s National Defense College Something similar happened north of the border some years later. In 1946 the Canadian Department of National Defense established a yearlong course similar to the National War College curriculum. Known as the National Defense College and based in Kings- ton, Ontario, it consisted of Army and Air Force colonels and Navy captains. Allied officers, including Americans, attended regularly. Civil servants and civilians from defense-related indus- tries also took part. Like the National War College, the NDC had an ambitious international travel program. But over time the program came to be regarded by some senior officials in the Canadian Defense Ministry as elitist, expensive and of poor educational value. In 1994, the course and college were ter- minated by ministerial fiat. A few years passed with no profes- sional military education available in Canada for officers above the grades of major and lieutenant commander. Fortunately, new leaders recognized the deficiency and established two new courses for the education of senior officers. The semester-long courses were self-contained but com- plementary; some officers attended both courses in one academic year. One course, the Advanced Military Studies Program, prepared selected colonels and naval captains for opera- tional-level command and senior staff assignments within operational-level joint and combined headquarters. The other course, the National Security Studies Program, prepared general and flag officers, selected colonels, naval captains and civilian equivalents for strategic leadership responsibilities in the development, direction and management of nation- al security and defense policy. As before, American officers and their counterparts from other coun- tries participated in both programs. Both sets of students traveled, but not as much as the National Defense Col- lege did: the itinerary was limited to key centers, such as Ottawa, Wash- ington, D.C., New York City (for the United Nations) and Brussels (for NATO). This high-level program of courses continues to evolve. Originally, the students attended on a temporary- duty basis, leaving empty desks at their duty stations. Naturally, this made it difficult to get senior officers to release talented subordinates to be absent for one or two semesters of professional education. In Septem- ber the two courses were combined, and students are now assigned on per- manent-change-of-station basis. The new, yearlong course is called the National Security Program. N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 13 S P E A K I N G O U T The Senior Seminar was modeled on the National War College, but unlike that institution, failed to evolve to meet changing times and needs.