National Defense University is charged with preparing military officers and civilian national security establishment officials from the United States and its international partners for high-level command, staff, and policy responsibilities. A critical and essential effort necessary to meet the University mission within each of its various teaching components is acculturation. At NDU, this acculturation entails affecting our students’ values, attitudes, and perspectives of the joint, inter-agency, and multinational environments in which they will likely operate after graduation.

Webster defines acculturation as the modification of one culture as a result of contact with a different culture; and the process by which the culture of a particular society is instilled in a human being. Synonyms include cultivation, development, education, enlightenment, polish, and refinement. Acculturation of our students is crucial because prior to their arrival at NDU, their careers were anchored firmly in a single service, agency, or national culture and set of perspectives. Broadening their institutional or national perspectives and fostering the values and attitudes essential to operating effectively in joint, inter-agency, and multinational environments through an academic setting for an extended period of time allows students to benefit from significant contact with, open discussions about, and practical experience accommodating institutional and national differences.

The acculturation of students goes beyond the curricula of CAPSTONE, the Industrial College of the Armed Force, the National War College, and the Joint Forces Staff College. Certainly these four JPME components have the responsibility of acculturation among the students who cross their thresholds. Every teaching component of the University is committed to teaching students how to think strategically, and creatively, which is facilitated by intense, sustained, engagement between students and faculty from different services, agencies, or national cultures. Each University component meets this vital mission through a variety of methods and approaches. We continue to explore new ways to bring about the acculturation of our students in full recognition that much of the shift to a broader, more rich and diverse perspective occurs outside the classroom. While direct measurement of our success in acculturation is difficult; the true measure of our ability to facilitate the desired culture is the success of graduates of National Defense University in the national and international arena.