IS PROFESSIONAL MILITARY EDUCATION REALLY “STAGNANT�
By Chuck Allen August 29, 2019
How does one respond when the senior steward of the U.S. military profession states that its education system is stagnated? … I was taken aback
How does one respond when the senior steward of the U.S. military profession states that its education system is stagnated? Then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis made such a declaration in his 2018 National Defense Strategy. This pronouncement carried an additional sting given Mattis was a retired four-star officer who served as an institutional leader as Commandant, US Joint Forces Command and Supreme Allied Commander Transformation concurrently and then as the combatant commander of US Central Command.
As a faculty member of a Senior Level College (SLC) that delivers Joint Profession Military Education II (JPME II), I was taken aback. One would expect PME institutions and their faculty to be defensive. After all, we are the bureaucrats who design and deliver the PME curriculum to the joint force. We profess unique expertise in the jurisdictions of the military profession, as well as our extensive experience in training and educating members of the U.S. armed forces. Accordingly, we help shape the Officer Professional Military Education Program promulgated by the J-7 (Director for Joint Force Development) that ostensibly drives the programs of instruction for Joint Education across the service schools and joint courses.
https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/professional-military-education-stagnant/
