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Dominating the War Marketplace: A Case for Expanded Strategic Education in the US Army Acquisition Officer Corps

Hassan M. Kamara

This article argues for expanding the Army Acquisition Corps? traditional Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) focus of graduate education programs for its junior field grade and senior company grade officers to include National Security, and Strategic Studies programs. Implementing this change will increase the acquisition corps? intellectual capital to manage the evolving assumptions about future wars and adversaries inherent in the Army?s 30 year modernization strategy. Currently Army acquisition branch limits the scope of graduate programs for Army Acquisition Officers to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduate programs. While the latter programs are vital to the mission of the acquisition corps, expanding the educational scope to include Strategic and National Security graduate programs will grow a segment of junior acquisition officers that make cost, schedule and performance decisions with a more intimate understanding of increasingly complex strategic security environment. Moreover, such officers will be better equipped to extrapolate current global security trends to shape future requirements. Acquisition investments expected to be relevant to future conflicts require effective management of assumptions about the future strategic security environment - the types of wars the Army might fight, and nature of future adversaries. The Army Acquisition Corps should increase sponsorship of strategic education graduate programs for its Officers to better prepare for future wars and adversaries