| CTNSP staff are encouraged to teach courses and sponsor research at NDU and other academic institutions. The following are elective courses offered by the Center for students attending the National War College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. |
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| NDU 6003: WICKED PROBLEMS IN COMPLEX, CHAOTIC NATIONAL SECURITY ENVIRONMENTS |
| The course examines the kind of “wicked” national security problems that will be part of a complex, surprised-filled future filled, as well as ways for coalitions of business, government (civil and military) and civil society to tackle them. “Wicked” problems are hard or impossible to solve due to requirements that are contradictory, incomplete and changing, and often hard to recognize. The course begins with an examination of paradigm shifts and past innovations/transformations that have had major effects on national security environments. It explores forces that could lead to “wicked” national security problems. Changes in people, processes, organizations and technologies that will be needed to face hybrid warfare are contrasted with those needed to meet near-peer competitors, stabilization and reconstruction, and related missions. Classes explore opportunities involving cutting edge technologies and new organizational concepts while remaining grounded in fundamental human aspects of warfare. Future is examined, as well as policy-making and long-range planning in whole-of-government contexts. The course will use lectures, outside guest speakers, and seminar discussions. Students will collaborate in groups to prepare and deliver fifteen-minute presentations, then lead a discussion on a key aspect of a “wicked” national security problem. |
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| NDU 6006: STRATEGIC THINKING AND PLANNING |
| The world and its institutions are becoming more complex, more interrelated and more vulnerable to unanticipated consequences. The rapidity of our communications and our responses to events – while admirable in one sense – is affecting our ability to think things through and understand not only the first order effects of our decisions but second, third and more orders. Few people take the time or effort to “think things through,” yet we must do this if we are to be effective leaders and managers. Strategic thinking and strategic planning should be part of every leader’s and manager’s activities – whatever their organization. This course will offer sessions in all aspects of strategy from establishing visions, missions and goals to action and implementation plans and strategic communication. We will examine an example of major unintended consequences and identify the lessons learned. |
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| NDU 6008: CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION: THE BASICS, PART I |
| Human Interoperability is the ability to establish effective and trusted social system networks through basic fundamental processes. Within these processes there exists a universal language that is cross-cultural and interjects rapid trust building. This course seeks to provide the student with experiential knowledge of these fundamental building processes that will be continued to Part II in the spring for cross-cultural communications strategies. We contend that by understanding the basic fundamental building processes of communications, students will enhance their awareness of how they impact others when communicating their experiences, thoughts, beliefs and values, and how easily the communication strategy can be changed if needed. This course will provide examples and scenarios from which the students will use to conduct classroom exercises and open dialogues. The course is highly experiential and will require considerable student interactions. The outcome of the course is a means by which students will enhance their communication skills to be highly effective in every context or situation they encounter. |
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| NDU 6010: BIOLOGY AND NATIONAL SECURITY |
| Military operations including warfare in the 20th Century were revolutionized by physics (e.g. nuclear weapons, lasers) and information technology (e.g. computers, communications). The rapidly developing fields of biotechnology, bioengineering, nanoscience, and cognitive neuroscience will have a similarly significant impact on the Future Force of the 21st Century. This course will examine key scientific developments with a unique emphasis on the concepts of convergence and concilience of emerging scientific disciplines which will lead to entirely new military capabilities. The course will feature a number of guest scientists/engineers from the Service laboratories and the material will be presented at a conceptual level which requires little or no previous technical training. Students will be required to make a short presentation on a topic determined in consultation with the course instructor and write a brief (~5 pages) paper outlining the main points of their presentation. |
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| NDU 6039: COMMUNICATION INTEGRATION |
| This course examines the process of orchestrating all means of communication available to an organization so as to achieve desired results in terms of changed or reinforced human behavior. The course addresses all aspects of effective communication, including the correlation of values, vision, and mission; clear and precise long-range strategic planning; key audience identification and segmenting; cultural anthropology; credibility and the relationship between verbal and kinetic messages; the interface among public affairs, information operations, and public diplomacy; the significance of conventional and social media; feedback collection and analysis; and measurement of effectiveness. The course uses historical and hypothetical examples to illustrate communication principles, and includes presentations by distinguished leaders and communication experts from government, academia, and the private sector. There is no final examination or thesis, but students must submit a paper every week of no more than one page which, along with quality of class participation, will form the basis for a final grade. |
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