About the National War College

MISSION OF THE NATIONAL WAR COLLEGE

The mission of the National War College is to educate future leaders of the Armed Forces, State Department, and other civilian agencies for high-level policy, command, and staff responsibilities. To do this, NWC conducts a senior-level course of study in national security policy and strategy for selected U.S. and foreign military officers and federal officials.

The curriculum emphasizes the joint and interagency perspective. Reflecting this emphasis, 75 percent of the student body is composed of equal representation from the land, air, and sea (including Marine and Coast Guard) Services. The remaining 25 percent are drawn from the Department of State and other federal departments and agencies. In addition, international fellows from a number of countries join the student body.

The Commandant, a military officer of two-star rank, occupies a nominative position that rotates among the Army, Navy, and Air Force. As joint sponsor of the National War College, the Department of State nominates a foreign service officer with Ambassadorial rank to serve as the Commandant's Deputy and International Affairs Adviser. This position was inaugurated by the great diplomat-scholar George F. Kennan, whose thirteen lectures delivered at the NWC in 1946 and 1947, as well as the paper that provided the intellectual underpinnings of the “Containment Doctrine” of the Cold War, can be read in Giles D. Harlow and George C. Maerz, editors, Measures Short of War: The George F. Kennan Lectures at the National War College, 1946-47 (Washington, DC: NDU Press, 1991).

HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL WAR COLLEGE

According to Lieutenant General Leonard T. Gerow, President of the Board which recommended its formation, "The College is concerned with grand strategy and the utilization of the national resources necessary to implement that strategy... Its graduates will exercise a great influence on the formulation of national and foreign policy in both peace and war..." This theme is underscored with the inclusion of State Department, DoD, and other interagency representatives on the faculty and in the student body.

American experience in 20th Century wars has repeatedly shown that the complexity of planning and conducting global war plus joint and combined military operations required officers and civilians in government, inter-agencies, industry, and non-governmental organizations to be thoroughly familiar with each other's roles, functions, and missions. They also needed the skills to operate comfortably at levels in which key national security and strategy decisions would be made in peace and war. Since its inception, the National War College has proven invaluable in preparing its students for those responsibilities.

The College is located in Theodore Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair, the oldest active Army Post in existence today. Established near the confluence of the Anacostia and Potomac rivers, it was originally designed to protect Washington from river invasions. Later, it was the site of the trial and subsequent hanging of four co-conspirators associated with President Lincoln's assassination. On 21 February 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone to the building which now bears his name. The building has been home to the Army War College (1907 - 1917, 1919 - 1940), War Plans Division, War Department General Staff, Selective Service System Headquarters, Headquarters U.S. Army Ground Forces (all successively during World War II), and the National War College (1946 - present). The first National War College class met on 1 September 1946. One hundred American and six foreign observers attended the school. In June 1974, this unique structure was designated a National Historic Landmark.

To date, over 8,500 students have graduated from the College. The number of U.S. and international graduates who have been promoted to the top of their services or civilian agencies of the government is an indicator of the importance of the National War College, but its most profound effect has been on individual thinking and intellectual growth.