Military Education: New Paradigms for a Post-9/11 World

Abstract

In late October 2007, the U.S. Marine Corps Training and Education Command and the U.S. Naval Academy jointly sponsored a conference in Quantico, Virginia, titled “Pedagogy for the Long War: Teaching Irregular Warfare.” The conference focused on the conceptual, structural, intellectual, and methodological aspects of teaching and learning skills for fighting terrorism and insurgency, in both the schools and operating forces of the military, and at both the officer and enlisted level. This event, one of many in recent years, was particularly notable because it exemplifies the type of discussions and initiatives for reforming military education that would have been unthinkable before the attacks of September 11, 2001. Similar events that have recently taken place include a July 2005 Irregular Warfare II Conference, sponsored by the Marine Corps Combat Development Command; a May 2006 Culture and Language Learning Conference, sponsored by the Marine Corps Training and Education Command; a March 2006 Culture Training Summit, sponsored by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command; a September 2006 Culture Summit at Air University; a June 2007 Regional and Language Competencies Summit sponsored by the Defense Language Office; and a July 2007 Cross-Cultural Competencies Workshop sponsored by the Air University. These and other events demonstrate an important and critical shift in the focus of military education in the United States beyond a traditional focus on state-based threats and conventional warfare.