NEWPORT, R.I. – Since taking the reins as president of U.S. Naval War College on July 25, Rear Adm. Jeffrey Harley has been updating curriculum and expanding missions to meet the changing needs of students and faculty, while integrating relevant aspects the CNO’s Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority.
Harley is taking the college in a direction that better educates students, and also supports the Navy in ways beyond the school’s primary mission to educate and develop leaders. Specifically, he has worked to, as he says, operationalize, navalize and futurize the college.
Discussing the first 100 days of his tenure, Harley said educating students to lead is still the primary focus of about 60 percent of the school’s work. That goal and other missions are all vital to the school’s pivotal role in national security.
“There are significant portions of the college devoted to support the Navy writ large,” said Harley commenting on the missions that are outside the classroom. “That is everything from wargaming to warfighting courses, to leader and ethics training and education. Within that other 40 percent I want to further operationalize those outputs to better support our Navy.”
These outputs will increase the number of touch points between the school and the Pentagon as well as the Naval Warfare Development Command, according to the school’s leader.
Also on his plate during his growing tenure is the ongoing response to the current strategic environment where the Navy operates. In a reaction to global conditions, NWC has recently added a Russia Maritime Studies Institute (RMSI) to analyze the former Cold War adversary.
“It’s appropriate that we educate our students about that,” he said. “The RMSI can be an interface to all the entities within the Navy and the nation. It’s really about reflecting the world in which we live. Russia is a global force that must be better understood.”
In another area of growing concern, Harley wants graduates to understand the fundamentals of the emerging threat posed by cyber warfare when they leave the school.
“Everybody has to walk away with an understanding of the vocabulary, the architecture, the policies and the authorities that exist in the cyber domain,” he said. “So we are trying to build that into the curriculum. I think cyber curriculum is very important to our security future.”
His effort to navalize the curriculum includes directing the focus of the classrooms toward a more maritime perspective.
“We should unabashedly teach seapower and particularly sea control since sea control is such a vital element of what our Navy does and must do to maintain its relevance for the future,” Harley added.
Futurization of the coursework is another line of effort for Harley to ensure the students better understand what they may be facing in the near and long-term future.
“We are looking at updating the training within our operational arm and academic arm to better reflect the technologies that are here or will be here soon,” he said. “It is about enhancing the curriculum to better teach unmanned systems, space systems and cyber warfare and the cyber domain.”
The president is also adding another mission for the school that reflects the growth of NWC’s Naval Leader and Ethics and Center (NLEC) and the expansion of the topic within the Navy overall.
The new mission, to continually develop ethics and ethical leaders as part of professional training, joins the traditional missions of the school which are to develop future leaders, define future Navy role and missions, support combat readiness, and build international partnerships.
“This fifth mission is to reflect the increased role and responsibility of the NWC in leadership and ethics development,” said Harley. “We’ve always been responsible for the core mission to educate and develop leaders. With the incorporation of the NLEC it is particularly important that we reflect our missions, functions and tasks.
All of the missions are critically important, Harley stressed.
Another item on Harley’s aggressive agenda is expanding the school’s role in international engagement.
“We already have an incredible program that provides education to international leaders from all over the world,” he said. “We are looking at expanding the number of symposia that we offer to international alumni so we can continue the great work that takes place at the biennial International Seapower Symposium (ISS). The track record of those international leaders educated here at the Naval War College going on to become heads of navy is simply incredible, so we want to continue to expand that program.”
ISS is hosted by NWC and sponsored by the CNO and invites more than a hundred heads of navy and coast guards from around the world to come to Newport to discuss maritime issues.
Even with so many initiatives that are growing the value of the school, Harley says the focus is always on the students, who are sometimes taken aback by the requirements.
“I think our students often are challenged by the rigor of the education,” Harley said. “They come here anticipating a 10-month education, and they often don’t realize it is a two-year master’s degree program crammed into that period. I think that is the biggest thing that I’ve discovered when I talk with students. They are surprised by the academic rigor. It is very, very real. They have to work very hard to earn that degree.”
Through the improvements Harley has planned, he remains steadfastly devoted to the important role the college plays in national security.
“Significance of the college is understood by our Navy and our nation,” he said. “I would tell you, because I know, that this is the best war college of all the colleges and that applies worldwide. There is no other institution like your NWC. We are particularly blessed to have an opportunity to serve here to make real contributions. Together, if we develop these lines of effort, we can take the college even more forward to build on the great reputation that we already have to make it even greater.”