Core Curriculum
The core teachings at U.S. Naval War College, College of Distance Education, provide a framework for military and civilian leaders to gain an understanding of strategy and operations and the ability to think critically, deal with uncertainty and surprise, be proficient in joint matters, comprehend both the security environment and all elements of national power.
About the Core Curriculum
For the Fleet Seminar Program and the U.S. Naval War College at the Naval Postgraduate School Program, this understanding is achieved through the combined efforts of three core courses: Joint Maritime Operations, Theater Security Decision Making, and Strategy and Warfare. The Naval Command and Staff (NC&S) online program is organized into five educational blocks of similar material.
Joint Maritime Operations Curriculum
The Joint Maritime Operations curriculum focuses on the joint war fighting at the theater-strategic and operational levels of war. This course prepares future military and civilian leaders for high-level policy, command, and staff positions requiring joint planning expertise and joint warfighting skills. It emphasizes the theory and practice of operational art in terms of maritime and joint forces. Students will learn to apply operational art, the joint operation planning process and critical thinking skills in a seminar environment to employ joint forces to achieve a broad array of objectives.
Theater Strategic Decision Making Curriculum
In Theater Strategic Decision Making (TSDM), you will study decision-making concepts and apply them to case studies of complex real-world issues. The TSDM curriculum educates students in effective leadership and decision-making in security, national defense, and military strategic concepts, particularly those involving force selection and planning challenges within national and theater resource constraints.
Strategy and War
The Strategy and War course is founded on the Clausewitzian premise that "war is a continuation of policy with the addition of other means." This curriculum teaches students to think strategically and prepares them for positions of strategic leadership. Designed to sharpen each student's ability to assess how alternative strategic courses of action achieve broad, national-level objectives. Students will think in a disciplined, critical, and original manner about the international strategic environment, about a range of potential strategies, and about the strategic effects of joint, interagency, and multinational operations.
Taking Core Courses
Core courses are offered to our students via Fleet Seminar Program and NWC at NPS Program. Individual completion of any core course must be accomplished in a single program. However, as a distance education student you can combine core courses from these programs to complete the requirements for the Intermediate Level, Joint Professional Military Education.
Students in the NC&S Online Program receive credit for prior coursework that has been completed.
Please Note: Core courses in the Fleet Seminar Program or NWC at NPS may be completed in any order. The Online Program must be completed in order.
Seminar-style Classes
The Fleet Seminar Program delivers Joint Professional Military Education Phase I to students at multiple Naval bases and stations across the United States. Seminar-style classes include research, writing, and discussions.
Discover This ProgramClasses Taken Online
The Naval Command and Staff, Online Program delivers Joint Professional Military Education Phase I to students online. Courses consist of online discussion boards, individual essays, and other assignments.
Explore Online ProgramAttending Classes at NPS
Naval War College Monterey is a satellite office of the U.S. Naval War College, College of Distance Education located on campus at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
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