NEWPORT, R.I. – U.S. Naval War College (NWC) Provost Lewis M. Duncan presented the college’s James G. Stavridis Award for Excellence in Theater Strategic Planning to the top seminar group of the National Security Affairs department’s intermediate-level Theater Security Decision Making (TSDM) course, Nov. 3.
The class included 340 students who were divided into 23 seminars of 13 to 15 students. Each seminar group focused on the security challenges of a specific geographic combatant command area of operation.
“We want the students to wrestle with the complexities of the challenges these commands face and then give them opportunities to provide solutions,” said James L. Cook, associate professor of national security affairs and the final exercise coordinator. “This capstone educational exercise forces the students to do this.”
As part of the event, each student seminar group created a list of prioritized issues, sought solutions for their combatant command, and described how to implement them.
Five finalist seminars, each focusing on one of five geographic combatant commands, were selected to present their ideas to a judging panel of senior representatives from those five commands.
From those five finalist seminars, one was selected as the overall winner and received the Stavridis honor.
“These students have embraced the challenge and came up with creative ways to reach objectives and support U.S. interests,” added Cook.
The award is named for James G. Stavridis, a retired U.S. Navy admiral and NWC graduate who served as Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, commander of U.S. European Command and U.S. Southern Command, and who is currently the dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
The winning seminar focused on the need for U.S. European Command to be combat ready in an unstable world.
“One of the things that set us apart, was that we had to make the decision that we were going to have a more combat focus,” said Marine Corps Maj. Adam Blanton, captain of the winning seminar group. “I think having looked at lot of the presentations by the other groups, there seems to be a huge focus on partnership with other coalition forces and other nations. Everyone is doing that. What we needed was more of a warfighting emphasis.”
The winning team benefitted from having representatives from Turkey, Estonia and Croatia for its presentation on the European Command.
“They gave us an entirely additional perspective,” said Blanton. “For the most part, Eastern Europe team members who are on the edge and close to Russia gave us a whole additional level to our presentation.”
The winning team, Seminar 12, was composed of Blanton; U.S. Navy lieutenant commanders Robert Dibbern, Sean Jarvis, Stephen Lamoure, Craig Salveson and Samuel Train; U.S. Army majors Michael Carvelli, Samuel Price and Robert Stillings; U.S. Air Force majors Jennifer Mapp and Barry McGee; Croatian navy Lt. Skelin Stipe; Estonian navy Lt. Cmdr. Erkki Silm; Turkish navy Lt. Cmdr. Serdar Bozoglan; and Nicholas Hicks, a federal civilian.