This volume is a study of military education, with emphasis upon the preparation of career officers for positions involving participation in the formulation of national policy. It examines first the developments of recent decades that have brought these officers into intimate association with a wide variety of nonmilitary activities and considerations. It then speculates about the qualifications that seem to be called for among officers assigned to these positions. In this connection it takes note of the distinctive context of decision making in military organizations. The principal portions of the book deal with education programs, as they relate to the cultivation of these qualifications.

Part one. Military responsibilities in the modern age. The variety of military experience -- Qualifications for high level policy roles / Part two. The growth of military education for policy roles. The organization of military training and education -- The evolution of military education -- Educational developments during the Second World War -- Undergraduate military education in the postwar decade -- Postwar plans for advanced military education -- Postwar development of the senior joint and service colleges / Part three. Undergraduate education: preparing for a military career. The mission and organization of the service academies -- The curricula and instruction of the service academies -- An evaluation of the service academies -- ROTC and other undergraduate education / Part four. Intermediate military education. Preparing for military assignments -- The Armed Forces Staff College / Part five. Senior military education. Organization and methods of the war colleges -- The curricula of the war colleges -- An appraisal of instruction in the war colleges -- The industrial college of the armed forces -- The senior colleges evaluated / Part six. Higher education in the Armed Forces. The schools and the services -- The predicament of joint military education -- Education for policy roles: some final observations / Appendix: A note on officers in policy roles.