In 2004, the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr released a concept for the realignment of field grade officer development. The concept claims to respond to the requirements of the contemporary and future operating environment and attempts to ensure lifelong professional education. The reform acknowledges the growing complexity of joint, interagency, and multinational strategic considerations in the aftermath of the Cold War. A key element in the Bundeswehr's response to changes in security needs is to look actively for insights into long-term changes in doctrine, concepts of operation, and organizations. In this context, the ability of the field grade officer to analyze and deal with change is crucial to the Bundeswehr's adaptation to change. Hence, the focus of this research was an assessment of the ability of the Bundeswehr's educational reform to develop and foster critical, creative and logical thinking among German officers. To assess the Bundeswehr's educational reforms it was necessary to establish criteria with which to make the assessment. The criteria were derived by comparing the skills required by the contemporary security environment and adult education theories related to the required skills. Those findings were grouped into a rough model to assess both the Bundeswehr's reforms and the new curricula. The analysis of the Bundeswehr's professional military education system reveals that portions of the system provide the educational basis for producing field grade officers who can learn and adapt in a complex security environment. The strongest parts of the system are the initial university education and the General Staff Officer Education. In those programs, the officer has adequate time to reflect upon and repeat experiences developed through practice. Those programs also provide the academic context needed to understand the contemporary security environment from the perspective of a complex system. The other courses in the educational system lack important elements to have much influence on a field grade officer's ability to learn and adapt effectively. While it seems the General Staff Officer Education provides the best program in which to develop a field grade officer's self-directed learning skills and his ability to cope with complexity, most officers do not attend that course. Thus, the results of the research suggest four recommendations to improve the German field grade officer's ability to learn and adapt. First, the Bundeswehr must implement a service wide synchronized professional officer education strategy that provides a detailed rationale for educational requirements. Second, the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr must incorporate learning objectives into its curricula that reflect self-directed learning and coping with complexity. Third, the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr must focus on military theory and military history that facilitates self-directed learning and coping with complexity in a professional military environment. Finally, continuing education must be mandatory at the senior level.

ADA 523192 Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.)