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Theater Security Decision Making

Theater Security Decision Making (TSDM) is designed to engage intermediate-rank students in the complexities of today's national and international security environment with a strong emphasis on U.S. decision making challenges and processes at the theater-strategic level of the geographic combatant commands.

U.S. Naval War College students in the National Security Affairs Department participate in the Theater Security Decision Making (TSDM) Final Exercise in Spruance auditorium Nov. 6.
U.S. Naval War College students in the National Security Affairs Department participate in the Theater Security Decision Making (TSDM) Final Exercise in Spruance auditorium Nov. 6. The final exercise for the course is a competition among student seminar teams with the winning group presented the Adm. James G. Stavridis Award for Excellence in Theater Strategic Planning. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tyler D. John/Released)

About the Course

These eight-credit hour courses provide a broad interdisciplinary foundation in contemporary security studies including international relations, regional studies, foreign policy analysis and decision-making. The curriculum consists of two sub-courses and a culminating exercise:

  • International Security
  • Foreign Policy Analysis
  • Capstone Exercise

Capstone FX

At the end of TSDM, each seminar acts as a geographic combatant command working group to produce and present a capstone FX. Student seminars simulate the role of a theater strategic planning team for a geographic combatant command (GCC). Each seminar develops and presents an executive-level strategic estimate of the near-term regional security environment for one of five GCCs, the main tenants of a theater strategy that advances U.S. national interests, a priority list of capabilities needed to advance that strategy, and an implementation case study.

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