Some people think I have it in for the War Colleges. Nope, I don't. I think they just need to justify their existences, or face closure as the defense budget implodes in the coming years. So by prodding them now I may be helping them tomorrow. (You're welcome, Air War College!) And if they cannot justify their costs, they should indeed be closed.
I mention this because the friendly mailman brings a
book by
Howard Wiarda, a professor of international relations at
the University of Georgia who spent some time teaching at the National War
College. BLUF:
He was not impressed.
Here are some of his conclusions:
1. The War College was extremely authoritarian
and top-down. It did not function like any college (lower case) that I'd ever
seen. It was not a 'college' or 'university' at all but a military base run on
a command system. It had not made the compromises necessary to be both a
military institution and a serious teaching and educational institution.
2. The curriculum … was more like a manual in a technical school than a
serious graduate curriculum.
3. … There was no room for new or original ideas
…
8. I don't think the military brass who
run NWC … have the foggiest notion of what a college or university is all about."
(pp. 152-153)
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/07/13/a_memoir_of_the_national_war_college_and_its_technical_school_approach
