Revolution in Military Education

摘要

What impact will rapid change of today have on professional military education (PME). The answer is that it will be dramatic. Moreover, the revolution in military affairs (RMA) suggests a corresponding revolution in military education which transforms the who, what, when, where, and how of PME. Military education, especially joint professional military education (JPME), must be seamless, continuous, and careerlong. It must be needs-based, available on demand, and offered just-in-time. It must be more information technology- based (even networkcentric) as well as more experiential and virtual. And it must be fused with operations, integrate resident and nonresident instruction, and appeal to both military and civilian components as well as international institutions. These are the features of a revolution in military education, and it is underway. PME must keep abreast with the times--it must lead, not lag behind change. This has traditionally been the case. The war colleges were engines of change for industrial age warfare at the turn of the last century. After its founding in 1903 the U.S. Army War College developed the military leaders who mobilized and commanded massive land forces of unprecedented effectiveness and efficiency in two world wars. During the 1920s and 1930s American fleets crossed the Asia-Pacific region to engage the Japanese 127 times in wargames held at the Naval War College. As Winston Churchill once commented, World War II was won at U.S. war colleges in the interwar years. The National War College illustrates the contributions by PME institutions to national strategy and policy and to joint and multinational operations. The results were readily seen in Desert Storm. Generals John Yeosock and Chuck Horner, the land and air component commanders in the Persian Gulf War, were fellow students in the class of 1976 at the National War College, as was General Colin Powell, the Chairman. The graduates of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Arme.