NEWPORT, R.I. – The National Security Affairs (NSA) department of U.S. Naval War College (NWC) in Newport, Rhode Island provided its students with an inside look at how national policies are implemented during a two-part practitioner session held at the college, Aug. 30.
The first practitioner session was a 90-minute session with retired Adm. James Stavridis, former commander of both the U.S. Southern and European commands, and provided insight on how geographic combatant commanders (GCC) help make, as well as execute national security strategy. These are labeled “practitioner sessions” since they take the theory from the classrooms and put them in the real world for NWC students.
The session is part of the Theater Security Decision Making course and is aimed at training government officials and staff officers around the fleet and world to fulfill a critical role in the process of taking policies made in Washington, and implementing them at the theater or joint command level.
This practitioner session began as an informal discussion between Stavridis and host, Tom Fedyszyn, a NSA professor, focusing on both the personal and professional requirements of the role of the GCC. Here, Stavridis, currently the Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Medford, Mass., emphasized the importance of person-to-person relationships. He endorsed the framework used in the course, urging the students to evaluate all challenges from the personal, organizational as well as the international levels of analysis.
The U.S. Department of Defense has split the world into different geographic commands, each having its own GCC. The job of the GCC is to act as the Secretary of Defense’s principal agent in their respective regions and they create, develop and implement American national security policy and strategy. Everything from warfighting to the distribution of American military, economic and medical assistance is all done under the command of the GCC.
Stavridis emphasized the complexities face by American military leaders overseas. “I would like the students to take away an understanding about what happens at the level of combatant commander,” said Stavridis. “In particular, how important it is to focus on the history, the culture, the creation of intellectual capital about a geographic region, as well as to prepare them for the important assignments they’ll have advising senior officers as their careers go on.”
During the second part of the practitioner session, students split into 23 different seminar groups with their professors to discuss the insights they collected in the session led by Stavridis.
“It absolutely supported everything we’ve studied so far,” said Lt. Rod Hanks, a NWC student. “So we’ve got his perspective and his thoughts which solidified some of what we’ve talked about and it’s very helpful.”
Some of the students reflected on the importance of hearing from a former combatant commander as opposed to just reading about combatant commander experiences.
“It certainly adds to the human dimension of it,” said Marine Corps Maj. Adam Law, a NWC student. “Reading about these things, you can only gleam so much of the human dimension but actually hearing them from someone who’s lived them is different.”
NWC is a one-year resident program that graduates about 600 resident students and about 1,000 distance learning students each year. Its missions include educating and developing leaders, helping define the future of the Navy, supporting combat readiness, and strengthening maritime partnerships. Students earn Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) credit and either a diploma or a master’s degree in National Security and Strategic Studies or Defense and Strategic Studies. Established in 1884, U.S. Naval War College is the oldest institution of its kind in the world. More than 50,000 students have graduated since its first class of nine students in 1885 and about 300 of today’s active duty admirals, generals and senior executive service leaders are alumni.