Developing Strategic Leaders While Maintaining the Warfighting Edge

The Army must enhance leader development in order to maintain the relevance of its leaders and senior leaders for the contemporary operating environment (COE) of the 21st Century. The complex contemporary political stage and operations in support of the Global War on Terrorism have demanded a different kind of Army strategic leader. These officers must be sound tactical and operational leaders, be multi-disciplined, and possess senior management, cultural, and diplomatic skills not typically required of officers in the past. Army strategic leader development is not just important to our Army, its critical to our national defense. The development of a strategic leader takes years, possibly a career to properly develop. The Army core competency is conducting land warfare, and most educational and assignment opportunities focus on building expertise in this core competency. Army culture prefers leaders with significant tactical and operational experience over leaders that have other than tactical and operational experience. When you consider the facts, it is easy to understand why the leader developmental model centers on the tactical and operational Army. The principle question of our time is - is the current leader development model of education, training and assignment adequate enough to build future strategic leaders?