Military Review English Edition May-June 2016 | Page 72

(Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, U.S. Navy)

Adm. Mike Mullen, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addresses faculty and students at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff
College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 4 March 2010.

A Rigorous Education
for an Uncertain Future
Col. Francis J.H. Park, U.S. Army

I

n a July-August 2015 article in Military Review
discussing the Army University, Lt. Gen. Robert
B. Brown, commanding general of the U.S. Army
Combined Arms Center, states, “Our current [Army
educational] system is inadequate for addressing the
growing complexity, volatility, and uncertainty of
the twenty-first century security environment.”1 The
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Army’s system for professional military education,
if not upgraded, will be unequal to the challenges
that the Army and its leaders will face in the future.
Building an educational architecture to better develop
critical and creative thinkers in the Army is not a tax
on the force. Instead, it is a long-term investment in
the health of the force. It is a critical component for
May-June 2016  MILITARY REVIEW