National Defense University


The National Defense University is an institution of higher education funded by the United States Department of Defense, intended to facilitate high-level training, education, and the development of national security strategy. It is chartered by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with Vice Admiral Fritz Roegge, USN, as president. It is located on the grounds of Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C.
The school's master's program is a one-year intensive study program.

History

Before 1946, the U.S. military relied on specially-created programs to meet specific needs. They also made use of smaller training programs elsewhere. The closer integration of military forces and increasing complexity of strategy and technology necessitated the foundation of The National War College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
To better integrate all the education programs, Congress created the National Defense University in 1976. In 1981, the Joint Forces Staff College was created, followed by the Department of Defense Computer Institute in 1982, which later was renamed the Information Resources Management College. In 1984 the university created the Institute for National Strategic Studies to meet the demand for military research.
After the Goldwater-Nichols Act and the House Armed Services Committee Skelton Panel Report, the University decided to seek authority to grant master's degrees. In 1993 President Bill Clinton signed into law a bill that allowed NDU to grant the degree of Master of Science in National Resource Strategy upon graduates of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, and the Master of Science in National Security Strategy upon graduates of the National War College. The university is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.
In 2008, an NDU professor had blown the whistle on the fact that a Chilean colleague at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies of U.S. Southern Command headquartered at the university had not only been a member of military dictator Augusto Pinochet's DINA but was in addition accused of participating in the torture and murder of seven detainees in Chile. The whistleblower, Martin Edwin Andersen, was not only a senior staff member who earlier was the first national security whistleblower to receive the U.S. Office of Special Counsel's "Public Servant Award," but was also the same person who broke the story in The Nation on Kissinger's "green light" for Argentina's "dirty war."
The university has also admitted senior military personnel from countries that are allied to the United States; for example, former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz is a graduate.

Colleges and centers

The National Defense University includes:
NDU Press publishes Joint Force Quarterly four times per year. As stated on their home page "JFQ is the Chairman's joint military and security studies journal designed to inform and educate national security professionals on joint and integrated operations; whole-of-government contributions to national security policy and strategy; homeland security; and developments in training and joint military education to better equip America's military and security apparatus to meet tomorrow's challenges while protecting freedom today."

Notable alumni