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NWC Key to the New Maritime Strategy and Future Navy: An In-depth Look
Edited and provided by Naval War College Public Affairs
For over a century, the College has played a unique role in the analysis and formulation of national maritime strategy and policy as well as national grand strategy. Over the past two years, the Naval War College has found itself once again in a key position to support the leadership of our maritime forces, and those of our global partners, in thinking through the implications of a new set of global security challenges and opportunities. Tasked by Admiral Mike Mullen to work on a new strategy "of and for its time," the College has led an extensive scenario analysis and war gaming effort and a series of high-level conferences, symposia and other professional exchanges with maritime partners here in Newport and at other venues around the world.
The Chiefs of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard presented the results of this effort – The “Cooperative Strategy for the 21st Century” – at the 18th International Seapower Symposium hosted here at the War College, before the largest gathering of high-ranking naval leadership (97 countries) ever before assembled in the world.
Over the last 124 years, the Naval War College has achieved global prominence and reach, resting primarily on its international reputation for institutional integrity and relationships built on trust and confidence. For that reason, the College must play as key a role in implementing the new maritime strategy as it did in creating it.
The new Maritime Strategy is about security, stability and seapower. With the sea services working across the full spectrum of operations, maritime forces are building confidence and trust among nations through collective security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests in an open, multi-polar world. Although U.S. forces can surge when necessary to respond to crises, the Maritime Strategy recognizes that trust and cooperation cannot be surged. They must be built over time so that the strategic interests of the participants are continuously considered while mutual understanding and respect are promoted.
While the heavy lift work on the new strategy was going on, other elements of the Naval War College were involved on another initiative with huge impact on our future navy: building expertise at the operational level of war – where the diplomatic, informational and economic levers of national power must be orchestrated with military power. A raft of new initiatives and Navy-wide policies has generated new demands for resources, including lecture halls and seminar rooms.
“The College has seen itself thrust into the forefront of the Navy’s most vital work,” said Rear Admiral Jake Shuford, the College’s 51st president. “Fortunately, we have anticipated these new demands and translated them into what we call the ‘Master Plan,’ building it these last two years in careful coordination with the Navy and our partners here in Rhode Island.” In early August, the return on that investment began to be evident when the Navy unveiled its “Master Plan for Newport.”
This Master Plan outlines the long-term comprehensive vision that guides development at the base for the next 25 years. It is an encouraging indication of the Navy’s intentions to modernize the base and preserve its vital role in the nation’s military defense as a center of training excellence. The Naval War College is a key focal point within the plan.
“The Navy clearly has begun to recognize and capitalize on the unique strengths of the War College, as evidenced by its considerable increases in senior manning, with a near doubling of its student throughput and other indicators of significant support in terms of resources,” said Shuford. “Further, as you drive through the campus, you cannot miss the extraordinary amount of renovation that the campus is undergoing. A number of these projects are captured in the recently signed out Master Plan for Newport, the lynchpin of which is the effort on Coasters Harbor Island to renovate the College and create the new International Forum. You can see the amount of money that has already gone into refurbishment – the College has spearheaded the planning effort, going back to late 2004, when we began establishing the requirement to accommodate anticipated growth in students and missions.”
The NWC has a significant interest in the Master Plan since it intricately supports the long-term facilities plan for the College to recapitalize and modernize the campus, especially for a new building to be called the International Forum. The Forum is designed to be an 85,000 square foot state of the art strategic and operational research facility with an 1,800-seat auditorium. Most importantly, it will create a venue appropriate to the College’s rapidly expanding Regional and International Studies Initiative. While the Master Plan identifies buildings to be demolished, renovated or built, that does not mean that all of the funding has been identified to carry out the millions of dollars in projects.
According to Shuford, much of the current mission growth and future plans for facilities transformation on the campus are directly tied to the nation’s new Maritime Strategy.
“The College has long been a preeminent source of global maritime cooperation and for building trust and confidence, ever since the College was founded 124 years ago,” said Shuford. “The strength of the College’s current regional and international initiatives, its reach – its scope – its impact, has increased in an extraordinary fashion.”
In support of the Maritime Strategy, the Naval War College’s missions have evolved from what were traditionally two missions to four. “One of those four missions has to do with strengthening maritime cooperation,” said Shuford. “These initiatives are an indication of the Navy’s and the nation’s need to better develop men and women who understand how to habitually look at issues and the world through the eyes of our international partners.”
Strengthening maritime cooperation involves the College bringing together senior and intermediate level naval officers from other countries to develop leaders for high command in their navies. The College also promotes an open exchange of professional views, encourages friendship and cooperation, and studies operational planning methods.
The desired effect is to build and strengthen national and international maritime relationships and to improve the ability of U.S. and partner nations to operate together in the maritime domain.
One of the College’s objectives with its growing international Regional Studies programs is to achieve greater alignment with regional combatant and naval component commanders Theater Security Cooperation Strategies. Visits, such as U.S. Southern Command’s Adm. James Stavridis’ August roundtable with faculty members, more comprehensively take advantage of the extensive regional expertise, perspectives, and relationships resident in the College’s faculty. The College also is building greater relevance and currency into cultural and regional elements of the College’s professional military education programs and curricula.
While the College is making significant strides in international efforts, equivalent and supporting efforts need to happen with the campus infrastructure. Changes and renovations to the Naval War College campus directly impact the success of the vitally essential Regional Studies initiatives.
The College’s international programs are generally effective because of the sheer will and dedication of faculty and staff, who are often constrained by space and resources. Dispersed across the campus, faculty and Regional Studies Groups compete for limited internal and external funding. The Naval War College Foundation has been generous with assisting in these areas, but with shrinking room to accommodate growing research needs and library space and an increased demand for support to outreach, engagement or research, the inadequacies result in diffused efforts and missed opportunities.
Earlier this year, in a memorandum to the Chief of Naval Operations and the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Shuford outlined key elements that drive the College’s interests in the Master Plan, especially when they are interlinked with accreditation issues.
The College’s joint accreditation process, for example, noted while the College has a facilities plan, sufficient and appropriate spaces for faculty offices, student study, and collaboration areas are a major concern. Those space constraints are hampering the College’s ability to meet its growing responsibilities. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges also noted several years ago that many of the College’s buildings need significant modernization and that space utilization had reached capacity already at that point in time.
“You can see how the completion of the Master Plan is a milestone for the Naval War College,” said Shuford. “It helps us to capture what our facilities requirements are for now and into the future, especially as we grow in our mission, and it is a validation of those needs. The College’s infrastructure has not kept pace with our mission growth, whether in support of adequate space for the increasing numbers of students and faculty or building new or renovating existing facilities.”
The College’s resident student population in its intermediate and senior-level professional military education courses will have increased by 25 percent by 2009. Other courses have been put in place, including the senior flag officer curriculum called the Joint/Combined Force Maritime Component Commander (JFMCC/CFMCC) courses, and the Navy Operational Planners Course has tripled throughput in this high visibility program. The Maritime Staff Officers Course, begun in 2007, has added more students – almost 1,000 each year, and by 2009, the permanent support personnel will have proportionately increased by 8 percent, as a function of this program alone.
With plans for the new International Forum embodied in the base Master Plan, this new building becomes a major element for the War College to help address the facilities challenges.
“No longer will the College be forced to limit participation in some of its conferences and larger gatherings such as the Current Strategy Forum where each year we have to turn away over 1,000 interested citizens from around the world, because this new building will have an auditorium that will seat almost 2,000,” said Shuford. “As the College has begun to take back up the sort of analysis for which it was famous during the interwar years, it is recognized that that analysis requires special venues to execute in an effective and efficient fashion. We need spaces at the College expressly built for this type of analysis, research and war gaming.”
While the new International Forum is not yet programmed and funded, the vision has the $36 million project slated to begin construction in fiscal year 2011. The building will architecturally reorient the campus and create urgently needed space for additional mission functions, student loading, and faculty and staff associated with dramatically expanded student throughput and tasking. International Programs, led by Dean Vince Mocini, is one of the departments likely to find a number of its activities residing in the International Forum.
“An important factor to keep in mind about the Master Plan is that much of it is currently unfunded,” said Shuford. “Part of our vision, for example, is to renovate Mahan Hall and transform it back into a high tech library, which was Mahan’s original purpose. Even though its renovation is part of the Master Plan, it is difficult to obtain funding for libraries, especially during wartime. As a result, we’re in the process of looking for other sources of funding to renovate the library.”
While much work is taking place behind the scenes to bring the vision in the Master Plan to fruition, there is still much more to be done at the Naval War College. From building and sustaining global maritime partnerships to developing strategic and operational leaders, the College will continue to leverage its enduring strengths as an academic and research institution.
“Just as it has for the past century, the Naval War College plays a vital role in expanding international intellectual thought, war gaming and engagement,” said Shuford. “We have a reputation as an apolitical institution, defined by its integrity over the past 124 years, with direct results in international programs. It’s with the support of the Navy and the Naval War College Foundation that together we will continue to realize the great promise that this institution has to offer our nation.
“Just as the Maritime Strategy says, building and maintaining that trust and cooperation now with our international partners are not only the key to winning wars, but also to preventing them. I am reminded of a quote from the 1946 Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. It is inscribed into the bulkhead at the north end of our De Welden Passageway on campus. ‘Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that defenses of peace must be constructed.’ It is so very appropriate to what we are doing.”
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