Swedish Students at the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College, 1960-1999: An Analysis of the Exchange Program at Quantico between the US Marine Corps and the Swedish Navy/Coastal Artillery

摘要

Since 1960, Sweden has sent officers to the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College at Quantico, Virginia. This has been important for Sweden, as a nonalignment country, in developing and maintaining its military doctrines and officers' professional education, to compare its system with United States, in order to update tactics, techniques and procedures. Further, developing a broad network of personal contacts is also viewed as essential to maintaining valid and feasible national doctrines. This paper deals with the students who attended between 1960 and 1999. All the Swedish officers concerned where successful when compared with their peers. This indicates that they where considered exemplary professional officers and therefore sent to the school to have an opportunity to widen and deepening their knowledge base. In addition, they where given the opportunity to develop a network of international contacts which proved valuable to them and for Sweden in their post-graduation years. Swedish students spent almost a year, if not more, with the Marine Corps. The education at the Command and Staff College gave the students a wider knowledge base within their profession and it has also given Sweden valuable insights into how a superpower thinks, acts, and reacts.