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The U.S. Army, like most large organizations, can sometimes get some things wrong. But in this piece, I’d like to highlight two recent initiatives where the Army nailed it: the Advanced Strategic Planning and Policy Program (ASP3) and the Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFABs).
Having had the privilege to take part in both, I can affirm that they both are moving the Army in a positive direction and show how focusing on deliberate, constructive initiatives can continue moving the service forward.
First, ASP3 is a Ph.D.-producing program open to officers upon completion of their key and developmental assignment as a major (with many officers also choosing to apply as lieutenant colonels). Once accepted into ASP3, the officer applies to a Ph.D. program of their choice to focus on a field such as political science, history or security studies, and then works to earn a doctorate. You get only three years of study to complete all requirements, including the dissertation, an aggressive timeline that is notably more stringent than the typical Ph.D. student will experience. But it can — and has — been done successfully by…
