This book examines officer in-residence professional military education (PME) as a critical investment in the most important element of our military -- people. The primary purpose of PME is to develop military officers, throughout their careers, for the rigorous intellectual demands of complex contingencies and major conflicts. The authors discuss professional military education two decades after the Goldwater-Nichols Act and the Skelton Panel and provide statements from important hearings on continued engagement.

Most people measure military power with weapons, manpower, or resources, but How Militaries Learn shows that the key to success on the modern battlefield lies in the mind. Modern weapons and plentiful resources matter little if militaries cannot organize efficiently, exercise initiative, and take advantage of opportunities as they arise. How Militaries Learn examines 200 years of data from militaries around the world and arrives at a surprising conclusion: learning to think on the battlefield depends on a deep reservoir of human capital in society. Using case studies of France, Prussia, Turkey, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, How Militaries Learn shows the different ways that militaries learn to think and succeed on the battlefield. Anyone who wants to understand military power should read How Militaries Learn.

Military academies have served youth for more than a century with proud traditions of producing graduates who are scholars, leaders, and athletes who adhere to a code of honor and ethical principles as they take the knowledge, skills, and dispositions gained at those academies into higher education, the business world, military service, civic endeavors, and the broader workforce. There is a current gap and need for research that explores the various components of a K-20 military school/college education and how those components successfully produce leaders of character for our military, civic, academic, and business worlds both in the United States and abroad. The Handbook of Research on Character and Leadership Development in Military Schools synthesizes research on the impact of military academies by providing a singular compendium of current academic studies on the graduates of military academies and the communities of which they enter after graduation. The chapters will explore the academics, leadership, character development, citizenship, athletics, and other dimensions of both global and national, and both private and public, military academies. This book is ideal for current leaders, staffs, governing board members, and alumni of military academies both in the United States and internationally along with policymakers, government officials, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the implications of character and leadership development on individuals enrolled in or graduated from military schools.

This book offers a detailed examination of the professional military education system in the United States, from a critical, insider's perspective. The mission of America’s war colleges is to educate senior military officers in both the ways of war and the defence of peace. But are these colleges doing the best job possible in carrying out that important mission? Military education faces many demands, including a lack of preparation by the students, uneven quality of the faculty, and confusion over the curriculum. Many officers attend resident programs at the war colleges programs against the career advice of their leadership, despite the fact that they are virtually guaranteed graduation after less than a year of study, while others do their best to avoid it entirely. As the professional military education system has come under increasing scrutiny and criticism, some have even called for closing the war colleges. That answer, however, does not serve the United States well, especially in a complex, globalized environment, where military leaders need the best specialized education to prepare them for their future challenges. This volume examines the system that created and supports the perpetuation of this system, and why it is imperative that it be fixed. Written by a faculty member at a military college with twenty years' experience of the PME system, this book will of much interest to students of the US Military, US politics and military education in general.