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Description

This paper examines how external challenges have prompted national investments in education to enhance American national security. Rather than focusing primarily on traditional professional military education, this analysis examines how education has been used as a tool of American power. Four major moments of transformation in the international system are surveyed to illustrate a link between strategic educational capacity, defined as the application of attained knowledge and skills, and national power. The study then assesses how education is used as a power asset in the contemporary security environment. Today, an important educational capacity is emerging in the new Minerva program in the Department of Defense and other transformational educational concepts with security applications. Education is gaining an increasing interest among American decisionmakers as a strategic component of American power and an essential asset for successful military operations in the new global security environment.

Document Type

Policy Brief

Topic(s)

Military Education, National Security, Strategic Competition

Publication Date

1-2009

Publication

Defense Horizons

Publisher

National Defense University Press

City

Washington, DC

Keywords

national security education, strategic education, American power, professional military education, defense education, human capital, strategic competition, Minerva Initiative, educational capacity, national security strategy

From Sputnik to Minerva: Education and American National Security

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