The Eisenhower School Curriculum

The Eisenhower School accomplishes its educational mission with a rigorous curriculum that includes courses in national security studies, strategic leadership, economics, military strategy and logistics, acquisition, and regional security studies. These core courses are supplemented by a wide choice of elective courses and a vibrant student research program.

The school also offers concentration options, including the Senior Acquisition Course, as directed by the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act of 1990.

The curriculum includes a one-of-a-kind capstone study of industry that requires the development of a strategic perspective on the U.S. and global industrial base and its role in supporting the resource requirements of national security.

Department of Acquisition

The Acquisition department provides curricula and classroom instruction in support of educating senior USG, foreign military, and selected private sector personnel in two components: a core acquisition program for all students, and a legislatively mandated senior course for acquisition professionals. The Department executes a core and an advanced curriculum that provides a broad understanding of the defense acquisition process as well as the effects acquisition policies and practices have on the industrial base, the nation's economic well being and the nation's security strategy.

Department of Economics

The Economics Department provides curricula and classroom instruction in support of educating senior USG, foreign military, and selected private sector personnel in National and International Economic Policy (fall) and The Economics of Industry (spring). The purpose of the fall course is to provide students with a broad understanding of the national and international economic factors that affect national security policy. This course addresses fiscal and monetary policy, growth and productivity, globalization, trade and international capital flows, entitlements and budget issues, the rise of Asia and other regions, and economic development. It includes a computer-assisted exercise in international management of a macroeconomic shock. The purpose of the spring course is to provide students with tools of microeconomics and business strategy to help them analyze industries in general and the particular industry they are examining in their Industry Study (IS). This course covers industry structures (perfect competition to monopoly), costs and profits, market failure, regulatory and anti-trust policy, firm strategies, and financial analysisdrawing examples from the IS industry.

Department of Military Strategy and Logistics

The Military Strategy and Logistics Department provides curricula and classroom instruction in support of educating senior United States Government, foreign military, and selected private sector personnel in the art and science of force development and employment. Military Strategy & Logistics is offered in the fall of the academic year. The course provides students with the conceptual tools they need to assess a military strategic situation, decide how to proceed, and construct a plan that meets national objectives. The process of resourcing the strategy is constantly emphasized. The course is divided into three phases: Phase One addresses the fundamentals of warfare, presenting the features of war that have remained constant through recorded history, and evaluating their relevance in today's environment. Phase Two looks at integrating the military instrument of power into national processes for strategy development and the considerations required to resource the military aspects of a national strategy Phase Three studies the practicalities of implementing and resourcing the strategy at the theater level. This phase examines how a commander and his staff assess a situation, construct and select courses of action, build a plan, and adjust it for changing circumstances. Logistics are foundational to the entire course.

Department of National Security Studies

The National Security Studies department provides curricula and classroom instruction in support of educating senior USG, foreign military, and selected private sector personnel and is designed to promote the development of students as strategic thinkers and national security policymakers. A crucial objective of this school and the National Security Studies course is to enable students to effectively operate at the strategic level of crafting national-level policies and deciding "why" one policy is more likely to safeguard the nation's security than another. The course educates students to be able to select and integrate a wide range of policy decisions across diverse content areas such as domestic and international politics, military strategy, economics, and informational and technological capabilities. Students become adept in the art and science of developing, applying and coordinating the instruments of national power to achieve objectives that ensure national security. As part of this educational process students learn the foundations, elements, and critical considerations for developing a national security "grand strategy".

The course is typically presented in four units. The first unit is an introduction that examines the meaning and purpose of national security strategy, theoretical concepts that explain the international system, the assessment of national power, and the relationship of resources to strategy. The second unit addresses the U.S. political system and related subjects, such as interest groups and the media, and evaluates the impact of this system and its actors on the determination of national security policy. The third and fourth units respectively examine issues in the international system and current and future challenges in national security strategy. The former unit gives particular attention to how the United States has dealt with the international system in contrast to other states, while the latter turns attention towards topics like non-military instruments of power, the role and future of multilateral institutions, transnational issues, such as the environment, non-state actors, and alternative options for future national security strategy.

Department of Strategic Leadership

Strategic Leadership provides curricula and classroom instruction in support of educating senior U.S. government, foreign military, and selected private sector personnel in Strategic Leadership. The Strategic Leadership Department's mission is to educate and develop senior leaders to bring strategic thinking skills and innovative approaches to the challenges of transforming organizations and formulating and resourcing our future national security strategy. To achieve its mission, the department provides this school's Executive Assessment and Development Program (EADP), a core course on strategic leadership, and several electives that allow students to go into further depth on various leadership topics. Additionally, the department will sponsor several Commandant Lecture Series speakers on the topic of leadership and sponsor a panel discussion about Strategic Communication.

The purpose of the strategic leadership course is to help students develop into innovative strategic thinkers and change agents who can create and lead agile organizations to attain and maintain a competitive advantage in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous strategic environment.