Since its inception in 1881 as the School of Application for Infantry and Cavalry at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the Command and General Staff College (CGSC) has evolved to meet the educational and operational needs of the United States Army. Today, CGSC is more than an Army school – we are a Joint, interagency, intergovernmental and multinational College, accredited by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to provide Joint Professional Military Education, and by the Higher Learning Commission to grant a Master of Military Art and Science degree to qualified graduates in three of CGSC’s fourteen academic programs. The Command and General Staff College is a subordinate organization of Army University.
Mission
The CGSC mission is to educate, train and develop leaders for Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) and Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO) in a joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational (JIIM) operational environment; and to advance the art and science of the Profession of Arms in support of Army operational requirements.
Vision
The CGSC is America’s school for war and will always strive to be a renowned academic leader in the study of leadership, the conduct of joint and combined land warfare, and the synchronization of JIIM organizations to achieve national objectives in multi-and-all domain contexts. We will continue to support national civilian, military leaders, and field commanders with well-educated and well-trained leaders, in-depth research in operational-level land power studies, and reach-back planning in support of ongoing operations. We will inspire and support a world-class faculty dedicated to learning and advancing the professional body of knowledge.
Strategic Priorities
- Educate and train our students to ensure successful graduates can lead teams and solve complex problems in volatile, uncertain and ambiguous warfighting environments in accordance with Joint, Army and CGSC learning outcomes.
- Research and publish, with particular emphasis on operational-level land power studies
- Recruit, develop, and retain world-class faculty
- Support the Army at war and peace to advance the Profession of Arms and support Department of Defense talent management efforts
CGSC Principles
Learning Organization
We are a learning organization committed to currency and relevancy and contribution to the body of military knowledge. Our CGSC graduates must be prepared to assume warfighting duties immediately upon graduation. They must be confident, competent leaders and creative problem solvers who understand the complexities of the contemporary operating environment. Learning is our most important contribution to the nation; therefore, our challenge is the mastery of a varied, broad and ever-changing professional body of knowledge. Collaboration (developing, publishing and subscribing) in the professional body of knowledge is essential to maintain currency and make relevant contributions to furthering professional understanding or creating new professional knowledge. This demands that we sustain a learning organization committed to a continuous effort to improve student learning, enhance faculty teaching and create a positive adult learning environment. We must be an analytic, thinking, and learning institution, seeking new knowledge, balancing contemporary innovation and enduring principles.
Empowered Professional Faculty
We empower our professional faculty. We best accomplish educational outcomes through vital professional faculty who recognize that excellence in teaching is foremost. Our faculty members are drawn from an entire range of relevant academic and military disciplines, and they embody the scholarship of teaching, learning, and warfighting. As professional educators, they are committed to master both content and process. Our faculty are experts in their respective fields of study, talented facilitators of learning, and empowered with the flexibility to determine how best to achieve learning objectives in their classrooms so that our students’ learning will last.
Socratic and Adult Learning Methods
We employ Socratic and adult learning methods in our teaching practices. We approach education as the dynamic interaction between active learners, faculty using learner-centric andragogies, and relevant outcomes-based curricula. Our faculty members create learning environments that allow students to construct knowledge – make meaning – by connecting curriculum content with their own experiences and prior knowledge through practical application and critical reflection. To accomplish this, our faculty are comfortable in their roles as facilitators and employ learner-centric methods and techniques that actively engage students in the learning process. Simulation-based exercises, case studies, and seminar discussions demand high levels of student interaction and create opportunities for peer learning. Beyond enabling the pursuit of specific course and joint learning outcomes, our learning methodology seeks to develop intrinsically motivated, intellectually curious officers, noncommissioned officers, and interagency partners with the skills necessary to access information and construct knowledge on their own.
Training for Certainty and Education for Uncertainty
We train for certainty and educate for uncertainty with a multi-disciplinary curriculum. We serve as the U.S. Army’s most important professional schools, combining theoretical education and practical training to produce leaders who are proficient in the understanding and conduct of modern warfare. We must train our graduates on enduring doctrinal principles, emerging lessons, and the skills they will require in their career. We must educate our graduates for the uncertainty inherent in today’s operational environment; they must know how to think and apply critical reasoning and creative thinking in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous situations. Our academic methods and curricular designs educate and train military officers, noncommissioned officers, and interagency partners in the nature and conduct of land warfare within the complex national security environment. In addition, we advance the state of contemporary military knowledge through original research and experimentation.
Joint Interdependence & Implications on Levels of War
We create a student-centric learning environment that supports the understanding of joint interdependence and the implications of the operational and tactical levels of war. We expand students’ understanding of joint force deployment at the operational and tactical levels of war, to include joint force capabilities and inter-relationships across the full range of military operations. We employ simulation-based exercises, case studies, and seminar discussions in ways that introduce students to the complexity and dynamism of MDO and JADO in a JIIM operating environment. Our active learning methods also allow faculty to inject uncertainty and surprise into classroom learning experiences in ways that demand flexibility and promote adaptability.
College-level Learning Outcomes
Our graduates:
- Arrive at their units prepared to assume war fighting duties.
- Possess the competencies/supporting skills/knowledge to perform duties effectively and help teams achieve organizational objectives.
- Are attuned to the complexity of the operating environment and consider the impact of culture on military operations.
- Take a disciplined approach to meeting organizational and strategic-level leadership challenges.
- Are critical, creative, and systems thinkers who can adapt and thrive in ambiguous and ever-changing environments.
- Are self-aware and motivated to continue learning and improving throughout their careers.
- Communicate effectively.