Every student in the Distance Education Program is required to participate in the elective program. Electives provide students with instruction in a specialized subject which will build on the knowledge gained during the two year program and which will be either of personal or professional interest to the student. The list of offerings varies from year to year. Courses in the Elective Program are taught by USAWC faculty and are designed to provide the opportunity for greater depth of study with an expert in a specific area of study. Examples of courses that are traditionally offered follow.
DE2321 - How Congress Works: Dealing with Members and Staff
This course provides individuals with the background and skills to become more effective in a wide range of interactions with Congress, as well as enabling individuals to better understand developments and actions taken in the legislative arena. It is especially useful for anyone who’s current or future responsibilities involve participating in any aspect of the legislative process: tracking legislation; implementing regulations; or providing information in response to a request from Congress. The focus of the course is on congressional process, organization, and practices, the relationship between Congress and the other branches of national government, particularly the military, how to interact with Congress, and contemporary challenges facing Congress. Anyone with the desire to engage with Members of Congress (MOCs) and/or the Professional Staff Members (PSMs), will find this course enlightening.
DE2323 - Latin American Studies
For Americans, our eyes are wide shut in relation to Latin America’s peril, terror, and security threat expansion. What are we waiting for? Another 911? According to Aljazeera, “United States is ‘losing’ Latin America!” In an era of intense domestic polarization, analysts - especially in the United States but elsewhere as well - of all different political stripes seem to find agreement. This line of reasoning gathered steam in the past decade in large part because of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's rise to power. It is a straightforward and tempting thesis, but it is also inaccurate and fosters problematic directions for US foreign policy. The basic argument goes like this: Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush alike have focused on other parts of the world, primarily the Middle East. They have, therefore, responded to events in this hemisphere in a reactive and insufficient manner which allows adversaries - Venezuelans, Cubans, Chinese, Russians, Iranians, Hamas, among others - to throw their political weight around. The ‘losing’ thus refers to a perceived loss of influence on a major scale. Some consider the trend positive because, they say, Latin American countries are enjoying more sovereignty. Others believe it to be negative because it entails a threat to US security” (Aljazeera, Is the US ‘losing’ Latin America? Opinion: Politics, 4 September 2014).
By 2030, trends in Latin America indicate that global mega trends will impact the United States of America. This six-week, elective course aims at security challenges and issues within the Caribbean, and North, Central, and South America, that is, all countries south of United States that may pose threats to our national security. From drivers to implications for intelligence, the course is designed to create strategic, andragogic discussions to address possible implications of current and future trends. Throughout this course, students will use theoretical models of critical, logical, and strategic mind mapping to intelligently discuss the future of Latin America and the United States. Students will analyze readings and research in preparation for graduate-level, strategic changes which may remap our view of the national security landscape based on emerging threats from Latin America. To this end, students will complete the course with their own interpretation of the data to answer the question posed in the course: SECURITY THREAT EXPANSION IN LATIN AMERICA - WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?
This course will make you uncomfortable, DE 2323 is designed to challenge your knowledge of Latin America (e.g., past, present and future), defy your assumptions, and dare your intellectual aptitude to “think outside of the box.” As designed, your reactions to controversial readings, discussions, and audiovisuals will emerge from the point of thought provocation. DE2323 prepares senior military and civilian leaders to remove epistemological blinders and apply, at the national and theater levels, key policy, geo-political and cultural perspectives useful in shaping U.S. national strategy and advancing U.S. interests with respect to Latin America and the Caribbean.
DE2325 - Case Studies in Strategic Leadership
This elective complements the DDE core course DE2301 Strategic Leadership, primarily through the use of leadership case studies. DE2301 introduced students to the concepts and skills required of leaders in the unique strategic leadership environment, characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) and the limited utility of directive authority. DE2325 is designed to further explore the theory students learned in DE2301 and fill a couple gaps in the core curriculum. DE2325 utilizes case studies from both the military and business. Some additional "theoretical‟ readings are assigned to augment DE2301 instruction.
DE2329 - Special Operations Forces
DE2329 introduces you to the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and the U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) Service components responsible for organizing, training, and equipping our Nation's SOF, and the relationship between conventional forces and SOF. The course will enhance your ability, as a future strategic leader or conventional force planner, to integrate and employ SOF to achieve military and political objectives. Readings and reference materials are included to support the course learning outcomes. At the end of this course, you will be acquainted with the organization, missions, capabilities, employment considerations and limitations of U.S. SOF. You will have a degree of skill in analyzing the operational environment and considering appropriate application of SOF consistent with their force structure, roles and functions. Finally, you will have a foundation of synthesized information to evaluate the interdependence of conventional forces and SOF to operate in synergy in the execution of assigned tasks to achieve unity of effort that maximizes the complementary and reinforcing effects of both forces. As you complete the three blocks of this course, consider your own thoughts about strategic and operational decision-making. As an educated national security professional, you should carefully assess the theories and ideas about the future operational environment, war, strategy, and decision-making. From this examination of SOF and Irregular Warfare (IW), you should develop your own concept for integrating and employing SOF to achieve military and political objectives in furtherance of U.S. national policy.
You will participate in two online, asynchronous forums during weeks 2 and 4, and work in 2 or 3 person teams to develop a 10-15 minute briefing examining the future of SOF or conventional force and SOF relationship in week 6.
DE2330 - Pacific War Strategy, 1941-1945
DE2330 provides you the opportunity to study and evaluate key national and theater strategic decisions of the 1941-1945 Pacific War. The purpose of the course is to expand your comprehension of strategy and strategic thinking and to enhance your ability to make or influence strategic decisions in the future. The primary focus is on American strategic decision making during the Pacific War fought from 1941 to 1945 between the Empire of Japan and the United States and its allies in the Pacific Ocean and Southwest Pacific Areas (POA and SWPA). However, you will also consider the perspective of the Japanese and U.S. allies and will examine events in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater, in Southeast Asia Command (SEAC), in the Russian Far East, and in Europe that affected the Pacific War.
The course begins with an examination of the Japanese decision for war and an overview of the Pacific War in the overall context of World War II. You will then explore one of three key strategic decisions of the war within an online, asynchronous forum. In addition, you will write a paper evaluating an additional strategic decision of the war of your choice. The course includes readings and online interactive material to support the course learning outcomes. At the end of this course, you should be able to apply the skills acquired in the strategic leadership, strategy, theater strategy, and campaigning courses to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate historical strategic decisions and to extrapolate from those evaluations to expand your own ability to develop sound strategic decisions.
DE2333 - Economics and National Security
This course is designed to provide the students a familiarity with the field of political economy focusing on those economic concepts, actors and processes that have implications for national security. The course is not an economics course, but rather seeks to examine the political impact that economic phenomena have on the United States as it conducts national security policy. From the perspective of U.S. national security, three major issues of the international economy are especially important. The first issue involves the nature and organization of the global economy. The course briefly examines three theoretical perspectives of political economy (realism, liberalism, and historical materialism) and the role of US leadership in maintaining the global, liberal economic system. This is important as military capability must ultimately rest on a strong economic foundation.
The second issue involves three key aspects of the global economy. The first aspect, the international monetary system, is complex and often misunderstood. Yet money is the lubricant that keeps the international economic engine moving efficiently. Trade is also an important aspect of the global economy. Open trade fosters economic growth and creates economic interdependence. As you remember from your examination of liberalism in DE2302, economic interdependence discourages military conflict and promotes cooperation. Yet, U.S. trade policy today suggests that the international trade regime is detrimental to U.S. interests and has resulted in lost manufacturing jobs and an increasing trade deficit. Debt and financial crises are the final aspects of the global economy studied in this course.
The final issue involves the problem of fostering economic development in developing countries. Economic development can improve governance and stability. Many commentators have noted that terrorism, conflict and war in the 21st century seem most likely to originate in failed or failing states. This course will examine these three issues and contemporary economic challenges in some detail. Students will write either a book review, or a regional/country analysis of 800-1,000 words (on the student’s choice of book, or region/country) and participate in a short forum on each of the issues above. Students with an interest in Economics might want to consider taking DE2333 and then taking the graduate seminar, “Keeping America Great: Economic Choices for a Strong Nation,” taught by Dr. Richard Neu, during the Second Resident Course.
DE2334 - Seapower for a New Era
DE2334 is designed to enhance USAWC Distance Education students' comprehension of a maritime perspective on the execution of the National Military Strategy and joint/combined operations around the globe. Students will analyze the U.S. Maritime Forces’ “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower” and the “Naval Operations Concept 2010”. They will then examine the roles, missions and force structure of the Aviation, Surface, Underwater and Expeditionary components of the Navy, including the Navy’s interdependence with the U. S. Coast Guard and other interagency partners in Homeland Defense. The course closes with a campaign analysis of a historical naval campaign, which allows students to study a complex expeditionary naval operation, some of the fundamental naval warfare tasks, and how naval forces can support a land campaign. This elective course is designed to specifically enhance the “joint” education experience of a USAWC Distance Education student. The purpose of the course is to expand the students’ comprehension of maritime strategy and provide an appreciation for strategic direction of the U.S. Maritime Forces to enhance their ability to make or influence strategic decisions in the future.
DE2335 - Airpower and Modern Warfare
DE2335 introduces Distance Education students to the evolution of airpower in warfare, examines its employment in the contemporary national security environment, and considers its potential roles in the strategic environment and types of conflict that frame the 21st century. Students will become familiar with the origins of airpower and decisions regarding its employment throughout history, analyze this influence on the evolution of airpower doctrine and strategy in the current 21st century strategic environment, and develop an appreciation for the future direction of airpower in support of U.S. national security policy and strategy. DE2335 primarily uses course readings and a Blackboard forum to support course objectives. At the end of this course, students should be able to apply the skills acquired in the strategic leadership, strategy, theater strategy, and campaigning courses to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the nature and theory of airpower. Students completing this course should have a broader perspective on the use of air power, to include its capabilities and its limitations. In addition, students should use this study to further their abilities to assess other theories and ideas about war, strategy, and decision making to better prepare them to meet future challenges they will face as senior leaders in the national security process.
DE2338 - Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA)
A secure U.S. homeland is the Nation’s first priority and is a fundamental aspect of the National Military Strategy. The Department of Defense (DOD) protects the homeland through two distinct but interrelated missions: Homeland Defense (HD) and Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA). Elective DE2338 addresses DOD support of U.S. civil authorities for domestic emergencies and for designated law enforcement and other activities. This elective will discuss the role of joint forces within the domestic operational environment, with particular emphasis on DSCA roles and processes, as well as DoD's relationship with other federal organizations, such as FEMA. It provides a detailed review of the Joint and Army doctrine that governs the activities and performance of U.S. armed forces in DSCA operations and the doctrinal basis for interagency coordination during domestic DSCA operations. In addition to reviewing appropriate military doctrine, the elective will also focus on the mechanisms for providing DSCA that exist in law, policy, and Department of Defense directives.
DE2339 - Geostrategy
This course examines the classic environment-based geopolitical theories to better understand current international conditions. The strategic environment is viewed through two lenses: Alfred Mahan’s “sea power,” and the continental power “Heartland” theory of Halford Mackinder and its counterpoint, Nicholas Spykman’s "Rimland" theory. The importance of a country's physical, cultural, economic, demographic, and political bases are examined to determine their influence on these theories and the attainment of future national power.
DE2340 - Energy and National Security
Together with their Army War College resident program colleagues (elective WF2245), this blended course allows distance program students to use the “energy security triangle” – supply, economics, environment – to evaluate national energy strategies of both the United States and other nations. They will analyze the impact of energy policy choices regarding fossil-based and sustainable energy sources on issues such as climate, infrastructure (e.g., the electric grid and pipelines), and trade. Students will use the Quadrennial Energy Review and energy analysis from government and commercial sources to evaluate U.S. energy policy and strategy. Finally, they will explore how operational energy affects the deployment, employment, and sustainment of military forces.
Students in both electives will meet for dialogue in the Blackboard forum. They will write a 2-page position paper and take part in a less-structured, more conversational forum than experienced in the DDE core courses. Students will have the opportunity to view recordings of guest speakers who addressed the resident course.
DE2342 Peace and Stability Operations
DE2342, Peace and Stability Operations builds senior leader understanding of the principles, policies, doctrine, challenges and effective practices of peace and stability operations at the strategic and operational levels. This elective has been designed to include in-depth coverage of how the United States (U.S.), the United Nations (UN), and our future multinational partners will approach peace and stability operations now and into the future.
DE2343 - Landpower: Theory, Practice, and Application
DE2343 is designed to provide a greater understanding of the theory, doctrine, and contemporary employment of landpower beyond that afforded by DE2310 in the core curriculum. It is designed to allow the USAWC DEP student to evaluate the potential of joint and multinational land forces and landpower on the conduct of warfare in the land domain in the contemporary operating environment. The course begins with the theories of landpower, then provides a historical overview of major landpower operations since World War II, and then discusses contemporary land operations and service, joint, and multinational organization and doctrine for land operations.
DE2344 - Program Research Project (PRP)
To demonstrate your grasp of the body of ideas you have studied and your ability to visualize a specific strategic security issue, you now have an opportunity to research and write on a strategic-level subject of your choosing. Several criteria are associated with this requirement, however. Throughout the core courses, you have prepared relatively short papers to fulfill each lesson's written requirement. The DE2344 Program Research Project (PRP) writing requirement is somewhat longer and somewhat different. You are to prepare a research paper with a strategic focus. The paper must be clear, persuasive, well written, and carefully documented with a minimum of 20 different references. Your paper must reflect quality research efforts, demonstrate thoughtful analysis, and conform to the highest standards of professional writing. Your writing must be at the graduate level, i.e., clear, concise, grammatically correct, logical, readable, and professionally polished. Be sure to consult the USAWC Communicative Arts Directive and other helpful resources linked to this course homepage.
DE2345 - Personal Experience Monograph (PEM)
This elective provides an opportunity to reflect upon your professional mission experiences within a strategic context. The Personal Experience Monograph supports the desire of the Chief of Staff of the Army to capture the experiences of those who have participated in combat or peace operations or who have had unique mission experiences, experiences with the capability of enhancing strategic insight. Several criteria are associated with this requirement. Throughout your courses of study so far, you have prepared relatively short papers to fulfill each lesson's written requirement. The DE 2345 Personal Experience Monograph (PEM) writing requirement is longer and somewhat different. You are to prepare an expository paper based on your personal professional experiences that seeks to incorporate, reflect upon and inform strategic insight. The paper must be clear, well written, and carefully documented when appropriate. Your paper must reflect quality research efforts, demonstrate thoughtful analysis, and conform to the highest standards of professional writing. Your writing must be at the graduate level, i.e., clear, concise, grammatically correct, logical, readable, and professionally polished. Be sure to consult the USAWC Communicative Arts Directive and other helpful resources linked to this course homepage
DE2346 - Directed Study
Directed Study in Peace Operations, Stability Operations, or Irregular Warfare (Option 1)
This is a mentored study of the seminal writings on peace operations, stability operations, or irregular warfare that influenced current U.S. government doctrine. Under the direct tutelage of an expert PKSOI faculty advisor, the student will survey important ideas and works through history to determine their influence on current thinking in one of these fields, including publications by the U.S. military, non-Defense agencies, academic institutions, and international organizations. The student will synthesize trends and concepts to explain their impacts on current and future operations, with intent for publication. Participants must have intermediate to advanced understanding of peace, stability, or irregular warfare operations through deployment experience, other research, or past academic exposure, as validated by the PKSOI faculty advisor.
Participants must have intermediate or better knowledge of requested topic, which the PKSOI faculty advisor will verify before acceptance into this program. Student will research and analyze foundational works in peace operations, stability operations, or irregular warfare to determine their influence on U.S. operations and doctrine, and publish the results in a paper of approximately 3000 words. Course requires bi-weekly verbal interaction with the expert PKSOI faculty advisor from December to April and weekly contact in April and May; this directed study is equivalent to completing a PRP/PEM or elective.
DE2346 - Directed Study in Strategic Studies (Option 2)
Students will write a "deep dive" research paper on a topic in one of these regions that complements the research agenda of the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) (as reflected
here in the Key Strategic Issue List.) Prospective writers will nominate a strategic research topic within their area of expertise (intermediate to advanced based on academic and/or operational experience) for consideration by SSI. Once approved, the student will independently research and write a paper of at least 6000 words under the mentorship of an assigned SSI Subject Matter Expert (SME) following the standard SSI format as depicted
here. The intent is to publish this work through SSI, if it meets the Institute's standards. Students will follow the same time line as the PRP and PEM in the table below.
To be eligible for DE2346 Directed Study, you must:
- Ask your Second Year Faculty Instructor to review your writing, research, and reasoning skills and send you an email recommending you for an advanced research project.
- Contact the electives director with your FI's endorsement to present your research topic and credentials for review no later than 30 October.
- Select "DE2346 Directed Study" as your first choice when the Electives Selection Tool goes on-line later this month. The qualified students with the most relevant topics will be enrolled in the Directed Study elective, and other students will receive one of their other elective choices (without prejudice).
| Directed Study Requirement |
Suspense |
Student expresses desire. FI recommends.
Sponsoring Institute screens applicants, then selects best qualified. |
15 Sep 14 |
| Topic Approval and preliminary research begins. |
31 Oct 14 |
| Thesis Statement Approval. Regular
contact with Project Advisor begins. |
13 Dec 14 |
| Outline Approval. |
14 Feb 15 |
| First draft and abstract due. Weekly contact with Project Advisor begins. |
12 May 15 |
| Final Product loaded into OASIS for evaluation. |
3 Jun 15 |
DE 2348 - Negotiations
Everyone negotiates; not everyone negotiates well. This course will improve your personal and professional negotiation skills using the systematic techniques of principled negotiation. Armed with these techniques and a little practice, you will be able to conduct, analyze and influence negotiations from the routine to the complex and from the tactical level to the strategic level. Students use materials from Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiations, a lecture series specifically developed by DDE in cooperation with the US Military Academy Negotiation Project, and other related readings. Students discuss and practice negotiation techniques using short Blackboard forums. Negotiation exercises are conducted during the online Elective and later during the Second Resident Course Negotiations Graduate Seminar. Evaluative requirements for this Elective are four Blackboard forums and an essay. The forums consist of either answer or response discussions on course readings or role based negotiation exercises. Forums are two to four days in length, conducted Wednesday to Saturday. Students will participate in four forums and write one essay. Note: As the course learning paths are sequential, students selecting this Negotiations Elective will automatically be enrolled in the Negotiations Graduate Seminar during the Second Resident Course. Graduate Seminar evaluation requirements will be based on student participation in discussions and role based negotiations exercises.
DE2349 - Cyber Operations
This elective examines the national strategic direction and conceptual development of Cyberspace Domain Operations along with the affect information age technology has on U.S. forces’ ability to develop and implement an effective Cyber threat deterrent. Students explore, in depth, the implementation of Cyber space policy and doctrine with a view toward discerning possible affects upon command and control structure, tactics, techniques and procedures, and transformation. The outcome of this elective is the student possessing a better perspective on the integration of Cyberspace Warfare at the joint, strategic, and operational levels. The student will be able to assess and understand how information age technologies affect the strategic direction of U.S. Forces and be able to articulate Cyberspace Warfare Operational concepts as these relate to joint strategy, DOD transformation, and asymmetric operations. Each student will complete a 1500 word unclassified essay concerning an aspect of Cyber Warfare at the national or strategic level having a significant effect on the conduct of military operations.
DE2350 - Decisionmaking Analysis
The science of Decision Analysis provides both qualitative and quantitative methodologies for assisting decision-makers in identifying courses of action and in selecting the optimal approach to solving a problem. The foundation of this course is the exploration of several of these methodologies presented in the assigned readings. The military senior leader often makes decisions based to some extent on the results of quantitative studies performed by others. This can be intimidating or uncomfortable and too often leads either to blind acceptance or to complete disregard of analytical results. At the conclusion of the course, students will be well versed in decision making and will be able to apply this decision making methodology in future challenges, personal and professional. The course will make the student better able to review critically and apply recommendations.
DE2353 - Facilitating Collaboration: Economic and Infrastructure Development
As the media waits outside, you consider this dilemma, “Given the broad range of conflicting goals, interests and resources represented by the stakeholders here, how can we possibly collaborate to address the major strategic challenges facing us?” You also consider, “How can we best strategically communicate our goals and plans in a way that reinforces our ability to take effective collective action? What skill sets, mindsets, processes, organizational structures, stakeholder analyses, analytic frameworks, and techniques should we employ to facilitate collaboration in these multilateral discussions?”
This course provides students the tools to answer these questions---using the case study method in the context of facilitating multilateral collaboration to support economic stabilization and infrastructure development in fragile and post-conflict states. Students will first evaluate the theory and practice of collaborative leadership within and amongst diverse organizations in the public, private, and service sectors. Students will then evaluate the theory, policy, doctrine, and practice of economic stabilization and infrastructure development (ESID), including relevant actors, authorities, resources, host nation capacity building systems, and the socio-economic-cultural-political context. Finally, working in small groups, students will create solution strategies for a region of the students’ choice. Students will interact with USAWC resident students during this course.
DE2355 - Organizational Culture and Change
Recent speakers to the Army War College challenged the audience to respond the drawdown by becoming more ‘innovative” and “adaptive.” They did not detail what they meant, or how this is done. This course attempts to fill that gap. Building on DE 2301 (Strategic Leadership) it reintroduces students to the concepts of organizational culture and cultural assessment. Further, it discusses the impediments to change and the challenges of leading in this paradoxical environment. At the conclusion of the course, students (senior leaders) will be better able to develop practical strategies to realize the intent of joint doctrine, namely having adaptive leadership at every echelon.
DE2357 - Campaign Analysis of the American Revolution - 1777: The Year of the Hangman
This course provides an overview of strategy in the American Revolution, focusing on a campaign analysis of the pivotal year of 1777. Having saved the Continental Army from dissolution with his now iconic victories at Trenton and Princeton, MG George Washington focuses his attention on building a capable, professional American Army. In so doing, he must also grapple with how best to employ it strategically in support of American independence. Meanwhile, the Howe brothers (LTG Sir William and VADM Lord Richard) and the North administration face a divided parliament and the tyranny of distance as impediments to British strategic direction while attempting to formulate a winning strategy to quell the American rebellion and reassert British rule. The strategic inflection point of the revolution, 1777 sees a landmark defeat for Burgoyne’s forces at Saratoga and a hollow victory for Howe in the Philadelphia Campaign, leading to a strategic game-changer: the entry of France into the war. Contemporary themes include strategic direction; strategic leadership; mission command; transformation of an army; civil-military relations; traditional, irregular, and hybrid threats; operational art and the joint functions, among others. This course is based upon the John S. Pancake book of the same name, and additionally includes a one lesson in-depth operational analysis of the Battle of Brandywine, using recent scholarship from Michael C. Harris’ newly released book on the subject.
DE2358 - Strategic Legal Considerations for the Battle Group Commander
Among the most important strategic legal considerations that commanders and senior military leaders must be familiar with when planning and executing military operations include the framework of international and operational law, the law of armed conflict, war crimes and command responsibility. The failure of commanders to prevent violations of the law of armed conflict and war crimes could have detrimental strategic consequences for the United States and her Allies. When dealing with coalition forces and partner nations, understanding universal concepts like grave breaches, universal jurisdiction, the Nuremburg principles, and the doctrine of command responsibility are key to planning common goals and strategy to win on both the tactical and strategic battlefield, to protect the overall national security of the United States, and to take a national leadership role in trying to prevent the horrors of the past from haunting future generations.
Part I of this elective will include an in-depth study of the framework of public international law, rules for the use of force and self-defense concepts, the law of armed conflict, the framework of the Hague and Geneva Conventions, International Humanitarian Law, and an overview of multi-national Rules of Engagement. Part II of this elective will then apply those above studies and principles with a thorough case study on the history and anatomy of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg followed by a comparative study of subsequent international war crime tribunals that occurred throughout history after Nuremberg. Additionally, the modern issue of cyber warfare and how it applies to the law of armed conflict and war crimes will be examined in this elective.
DE2360 - Gray Zone Considerations
The gray zone resides somewhere between the traditional or classical notions of war and peace. It is not a new concept, yet it has grown in prominence in recent years, particularly as the United States and its allies and partners grapple with the growing number of adversaries who wish to challenge us in the gray zone and the complexities of operating outside our traditional comfort zones. This course examines the concept of the gray zone and challenges students to evaluate in what manner strategies, especially military strategies, should reflect how to prepare for and counter competition and conflict in this operating zone.
The course will give students an intellectual basis for analyzing strategic implications regarding challenges in the gray zone - the large and growing area outside traditional thinking on war and peace. The course will include readings, review of video and audio material, seminar dialogue, and case studies.
Students who take this course will be required to complete all assigned readings, complete an individual written essay (5-7 pages) addressing a particular gray zone case study, and participate in an online forum answering questions and providing points of discussion in response to the faculty instructor and other students.
DE2362 - Reserve Component Issues
To understand issues and practices involved in the Reserve Components (RCs) and to examine the requirements involved in achieving a higher level of readiness and mission capability. Provide a comprehensive survey of Army RC organizations, functions and current issues from the perspective of senior leaders. Course covers the historical roles of RCs in developing and implementing national defense policy and significant legislative actions affecting them; organizations and functions of the National Guard and the USAR; organization and roles of other RCs within DoD; issues associated with command, leadership, management, training, transformation, logistics, administration and personnel. The course is designed to provide in-depth dialog of RCs and to provide students with working knowledge of the day-to-day challenges and policy issues impacting RC support of the Army and the goal of seamless integration.
DE2363 - Strategic Challenges in the CENTCOM Region
This Course will focus on the long term strategic challenges in the CENTCOM region and how the Combatant Command should deal with these challenges. In addition to transnational terrorism, failed states, and weak states, students will examine the underlying forces driving instability and recommend strategies to shape the region. The course will also consider the role of the Combatant Command in dealing with long term strategic challenges. Course readings will draw on current CENTCOM strategy documents and relevant readings, and will reflect current thinking in the CENTCOM HQ. The course is intended to help students hone the skills need to work as senior leader at the COCOM/strategic level.
DE2365 - Arsenal Europe: U.S. Military Forces, NATO, and the EU
Europe is again under threat. Among others, a militarily-resurgent Russia and a terrorist-sponsoring Iran lurk at the Continent's periphery, seeking advantage. In response, the United States military, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the European Union (EU) have renewed their longstanding strategic mandates to safeguard a Europe that is "whole, free, and at peace." Learn how the three main security shields of Europe's arsenal (the U.S. military, NATO, and the EU) interact and array to preserve peace and security on the Continent, as well as: how and why NATO and the EU were constituted; how they organize themselves and function in the Euro-Atlantic region today; and how and why they partner with numerous other security actors across the globe.
