Brown, Bill

Stiehm, Judith Hicks

English

U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons

Naval War College ReviewVolume 56Number 2 Spring Article 202003The U.S. Army War College: Military Education ina DemocracyBill BrownJudith Hicks StiehmFollow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-reviewThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contactrepository.inquiries@usnwc.edu.Recommended CitationBrown, Bill and Stiehm, Judith Hicks (2003) "The U.S. Army War College: Military Education in a Democracy," Naval War CollegeReview: Vol. 56 : No. 2 , Article 20.Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol56/iss2/20complex system of cradles and support-ing pontoons. With each lift, it wasmoved into shallower water, grounded,then lifted again. It reached PortsmouthHarbor in September 1939. The techni-cal details of its salvage are one of thetruly great stories of deep-sea salvageoperations.Kursk was raised in the fall of 2001 andcarried back to Roslyakovo Shipyard.Raising the sub was no mean feat of un-derwater engineering—it weighedtwenty-four thousand tons underwaterand lay in 350 feet of water. Unfortu-nately, Dunmore gives but four pages tothis accomplishment. Happily, two ofthem are devoted to excellent drawingsof the techniques by which the damagedbow was removed, lift points attached tothe hull, and the submarine drawn upinto a specially prepared floating drydock. One could well spend a seriousamount of time studying these drawingsalone.As a comprehensive treatment of sub-marine loss and recovery, Lost Subs isuneven and technically superficial.However, its treatment of the Scorpionand Kursk disasters and the rich collec-tion of underwater and salvage photo-graphs will please the generalist and fillniches for the naval scholar.FRANK C. MAHNCKEJoint Warfare Analysis CenterStiehm, Judith Hicks. The U.S. Army War College:Military Education in a Democracy. Temple Univ.Press, 2002. 200pp. $69.50This is an in-depth and insightful exami-nation of the U.S. Army War College,one of the nation’s six senior service col-leges. Stiehm offers a comprehensivebook that reviews the history of thecollege, provides a typical class profile,offers a look at the faculty and the cur-riculum, and describes what a typical“Carlisle year” is like for the students.While analyzing the administration,Stiehm offers recommendations for im-proving the institution’s ability to pro-duce quality graduates. Stiehm believesthat after following her prescription forimprovements, the graduates would bebetter able to fight and win the nation’swars and would be better prepared toprovide sound, thoughtful advice to se-nior decision makers on matters of na-tional security and the application ofmilitary force in the pursuit of nationalobjectives.Stiehm is uniquely qualified to writethis book. She attended the Army WarCollege as a student-participant ob-server during the first semester of aca-demic year 1996–97, with the class of1997. Stiehm was fully integrated intothe seminar experience of the war col-lege and shared both the academic andsocial experiences of her classmates. Shealso served as a visiting professor at theU.S. Army Peacekeeping Institute andat the Army’s Strategic Studies Insti-tute, both located at Carlisle Barracks.Stiehm’s critical examination of theArmy War College is valuable for theinsightful information she shares,which is otherwise not available to thegeneral reader, but more importantlyshould prove valuable to the Depart-ment of Defense policy makers and de-cision makers responsible for theestablishment and maintenance of de-fense institutions. The complex andmultidimensional nature of the globalwar on terrorism has caused the UnitedStates to think about warfare in a newway. Stiehm’s work challenges those in1 6 0 N A V A L W A R C O L L E G E R E V I E W1Brown and Stiehm: The U.S. Army War College: Military Education in a DemocracyPublished by U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons, 2003power to review the administration,curricula, and faculty of the Army WarCollege with an eye toward ensuringthat the institution is able to addresscontemporary issues effectively and ispositioned to adapt and change.Stiehm organizes her conclusions andrecommendations around the threethematic issues of “training and educa-tion,” “civil-military relations,” and“war and peace.” The first deals withthe basic function of the institution.Carlisle’s mission statement is focusedon the preparation and education of se-lected military, civilian, and interna-tional leaders. Is the mission of Carlisleto train or to educate? The differencesare not subtle. Stiehm argues that thenature and composition of the faculty,design of the curriculum, and mannerof course presentation all lead one toconclude that Carlisle is a training insti-tution, not optimized for education,and that if the mission of Carlisle is infact education, significant changes arerequired.The second deals with the most basicconstitutional issue of civilian controlof the military. Stiehm concludes thatthe Army War College does not ade-quately prepare future senior leadersfor the complications of realpolitik. Sheposits that there is an erosion of civiliancontrol of the military and that this ero-sion is partially the result of the failureby the senior service colleges to ensurethat graduates appreciate the uniqueposition of the military, as it relates togovernment officials elected by thecitizenry.The third issue deals with the notionthat we preserve the peace by preparingfor war. Stiehm concludes that theArmy War College may be spending toomuch time preparing for the wrong warand is unresponsive to today’s securityenvironment. She argues that the col-lege could become a powerful changeagent for military strategy, structure,and procurement, if certain of her rec-ommendations were adopted. Amongher recommendations are increased hir-ing of civilian Ph.D.s rather than retiredmilitary officers with doctorates, who,according to Stiehm, are of limited util-ity; increased independent research bythe faculty; redesign of the curriculumto create “discomfort” (that is, to causestudents to think outside of their com-fort zones); and offer master’s degreesto only a limited number of students.Stiehm provides much grist for the in-tellectual mill and does the Army WarCollege a service by creating a frame-work for professional dialogue and of-fering recommendations for futureimprovements.BILL BROWNColonel, U.S. Armyde Montbrial, Thierry and Jean Klein, eds.Dictionnaire de Stratégie. Paris: Presses universi-taires de France, 2000. 604pp. $130.92At a moment when American andFrench perceptions of security threatsand appropriate policy responses in theMiddle East are in apparent collision, itis well to be reminded how little Ameri-cans in the defense intellectual commu-nity know of their French counterparts.Yet as this volume shows, strategic stud-ies in France are not only alive and wellbut well informed, intellectually sophis-ticated, and surprisingly free ofanti-American animus.Thierry de Montbrial, director of theprestigious French Institute ofB O O K R E V I E W S 1 6 12Naval War College Review, Vol. 56 [2003], No. 2, Art. 20https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol56/iss2/20

The U.S. Army War College: Military Education in a Democracy

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