Staff college

Staff colleges (also command and staff colleges and War colleges) train military officers in the administrative, military staff and policy aspects of their profession. It is usual for such training to occur at several levels in a career. For example, an officer may be sent to various staff courses: as a captain they may be sent to a single service command and staff school to prepare for company command and equivalent staff posts; as a major to a single or joint service college to prepare for battalion command and equivalent staff posts; and as a colonel or brigadier to a higher staff college to prepare for brigade and division command and equivalent postings.
The success of staff colleges spawned, in the mid-twentieth century, a civilian imitation in what are called administrative staff colleges. These institutions apply some of the principles of the education of the military colleges to the executive development of managers from both the public and private sectors of the economy. The first and best-known administrative staff college was established in Britain at Greenlands near Henley, Oxfordshire and is now renamed Henley Management College.
History
The first modern staff college was that of Prussia. Prussian advanced officer education began under the reign of Frederick the Great in 1710. The Seven Years' War demonstrated the inadequacy of the education that generals had at that time, but it was not until 1801 that staff training in a modern sense began when Gerhard von Scharnhorst became the director of the Prussian Military Academy. Prussian defeats by Napoleon I led to the creation of the Allgemeine Kriegsschule (General War Academy) with a nine-month programme covering mathematics, tactics, strategy, staff work, weapons science, military geography, languages, physics, chemistry, and administration. The German staff courses have been used as a basic templates for other staff courses around the world.
Staff course formats
Nations have taken a wide variety of approaches to the form, curriculum and status of staff colleges, but have much in common with the Prussian courses of the early 19th Century. Some courses act as filters for promotion or entry into a specialist staff corps. The length of courses varies widely, from three months to three years, with some having entrance and/or exit examinations. The more senior the course, the more likely that it will include strategic, political and joint aspects, with junior courses often focusing on single service and tactical military aspects of warfare.
Idiom
Certain terms of art or idiom have developed in staff colleges over time, and then been used in wider college or university settings and everyday usage, including:
staff refers to the professional personnel (usually called directing staff (DS)) and employees of the college;
fight the white, normally expressed as do not fight the white (as in do not go against the staff's pre-determined answer), where the 'white' is the question given to students, which may lack realism or not fit current operations. A "pink" is the Staff College's staff answer to a particular problem or issue. Pinks and whites referred to the color coding of course material where problems and information for use of students was printed on standard white sheets of papers while material intended for use by directing staff (which often contained suggested solutions/answers) was produced on pink sheets. This practice originates from staff colleges of British origins. The tradition survives across several Commonwealth staff colleges such as the Command and Staff College, Quetta.
Staff colleges
The following is an incomplete list of staff colleges, by continent by country:
Africa
Ghana
Ghana Armed Forces Command And Staff College Military Academy And Training Schools, Teshie, Accra
Kenya
Defense Staff College, Nairobi
Namibia
Namibia Command and Staff College, Okahandja
Nigeria
Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji in Kaduna State
South Africa
South African National Defence College, Thaba Tshwane in Pretoria, Gauteng
South Africa National War College, Pretoria
South African Army College, Pretoria
South African Air Force College, Pretoria
South African Naval Staff College, Muizenberg, Western Cape
South African Military Health Training Formation, Pretoria
Uganda
Uganda Senior Command and Staff College, Kimaka in Jinja District
Uganda Junior Staff College, Jinja in Jinja District
The Americas
Argentina
Escuela Superior de Guerra "Teniente General Luis María Campos".
Brazil
Army
Escola de Comando e Estado-Maior do Exército
Escola de Aperfeiçoamento de Oficiais
Escola de Aperfeiçoamento de Sargentos das Armas
Escola de Instrução Especializada
Navy
Escola de Guerra Naval
Air Force
Escola de Comando e Estado Maior da Aeronáutica
Escola de Aperfeiçoamento de Oficiais da Aeronáutica
Canada
Canadian Army Command and Staff College
Canadian Forces College
United States
Air Force
Air University, HQ at Maxwell AFB, Alabama
USAF Air War College
School of Advanced Air and Space Studies
Air Command and Staff College
Squadron Officer School
Air Force Institute of Technology (Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio)
Army
U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA
Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, KS
School for Command Preparation
School of Advanced Military Studies
Command and General Staff School
School for Advanced Leadership and Tactics
U.S. Army Warrant Officer Career College, Fort Rucker, AL
Navy
Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island
College of Naval Warfare
Maritime Advanced Warfighting School
College of Naval Command and Staff
Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California
Marines
Marine Corps University, Marine Corps Base, Quantico, VA
Marine Corps War College
School of Advanced Warfighting
Marine Corps Command and Staff College
Expeditionary Warfare School
Joint
Defense Acquisition University - five campuses - HQ at Fort Belvoir, Virginia
National Defense University in Washington D.C.
National War College
Industrial College of the Armed Forces
Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia,
Asia
Bangladesh
Defence Services Command And Staff College, Mirpur
China
People's Liberation Army National Defense University
Nanjing PLA Army Command College
Shijiazhuang PLA Army Command College
PLA Naval Command College
PLA Air Force Command College
PLA Artillery Command College
Second Artillery Corps Command College
India
Tri-Service
National Defence College for One Star officers and Civil servants
Defence Services Staff College
College of Defence Management
Military Institute of Technology (MILIT) is a Technical Staff College
Army
Army War College, Mhow
Navy
Naval War College, Goa
Air force
College of Air Warfare
Indonesia
National Armed Forces Command and General Staff College
Army Command and General Staff College
Air Force Command and General Staff College
Japan
Tri-Service
Joint Staff College (統合幕僚学校, Tōgō Bakuryō Gakkō)
JGSDF and IJA
JGSDF TERCOM (Rikujō Jieitai Kyōiku Kunren Kenkyū Honbu)
JGSDF Staff College (Rikujō Jieitai Kanbu Gakkō) - Reorganised into TERCOM in 2018
Army War College (陸軍大学校, Rikugun Daigakkō) - Abolished in 1945
Army Artillery and Engineer School (Rikugun Hōkō Gakkō) - Renamed Army Science School (Rikugun Kagaku Gakkō) in 1941, abolished in 1945
JMSDF and IJN
JMSDF Staff College (海上自衛隊幹部学校, Kaikujō Jieitai Kanbu Gakkō)
Naval War College (海軍大學校, Kaigun Daigakkō) - Abolished in 1945
JASDF
Air Staff College (航空自衛隊幹部学校, Kōkū Jieitai Kanbu Gakkō)
Jordan
Royal Jordanian Joint Command and Staff College
Kuwait
Mubarak al-Abdullah Joint Command and Staff College
Lebanon
Fouad Shehab Command and Staff College
Nepal
Army Command and Staff College Kathmandu , Nepal
APF Command and Staff College Kathmandu, Nepal
Pakistan
National Defence University
Command and Staff College
PAF Air War College
Pakistan Navy War College
Philippines
Armed Forces of the Philippines Command and General Staff College
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Armed Forces Command and Staff College
Singapore
Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College
Sri Lanka
Tri-Service
National Defence College, Sri Lanka
Defence Services Command and Staff College
General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University
Army
Army War College, Buttala
Volunteer Force Training School
Army School of Logistics
Navy
Naval and Maritime Academy
Air Force
SLAF Junior Command & Staff College
Taiwan (Republic of China)
National Defense University
Army Command and Staff College
Naval Command and Staff College
Air Command and Staff College
United Arab Emirates
Armed Forces of the UAE Command and Staff College
Europe
Finland
National Defence University (Finland)
France
École de guerre ("War School"). Created in 1993 by the fusion of the four Écoles supérieures de guerre ("War Higher Schools"). Formerly known as Centre des hautes études militaires ("School of Advanced Military Studies"). Created in 1952. The students must have completed the École de guerre.
Institut des hautes études de la défense nationale ("School of Advanced Defense Studies"). Created in 1936. The students are civilians, both civil servants and high-profile executives, but the students of the Centre des hautes études militaires also attend the Institut..
École supérieure des officiers de réserve spécialistes d'état-major ("Reserve Staff Officers School"). Following the defeat of 1870-71 war, it was created in 1899 by a group of Reserve Officers and then officially became a staff college in 1900.
All these schools are seated in the école militaire in Paris.
Germany
Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr, Bundeswehr Command and Staff College.
Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik, Federal Academy for Security Policy.
Italy
Istituto di Studi Militari Marittimi, The Naval War College located within the Arsenale Marittimo in Venice.
Istituto di Scienze Militari Aeronautiche, The Aeronautics and Defence Science Institute located in Florence.
Portugal
Instituto de Estudos Superiores Militares ("Higher Military Studies Institute"), Portuguese Armed Forces Joint Command and Staff College. Created in 2005 by the fusion of the former three separate Army, Navy and Air Force staff colleges
Instituto da Defesa Nacional'' ("National Defense Institute"), Ministry of Defense college for National and International Security policy, created in 1967.
Sweden
Försvarshögskolan (Stockholm)
Switzerland
Armed Forces College AFC (Luzern)
United Kingdom
Defence Academy of the United Kingdom (Shrivenham)
Joint Services Command and Staff College for officers (OF2 to OF6) and Warrant Officers (Shrivenham)
JSCSC was formed by the merger in 1997 of: Staff College, Camberley (Army), Royal Naval College, Greenwich and RAF Staff College, Bracknell and the Joint Service Defence College
Royal College of Defence Studies for officers generally of colonel or brigadier rank (OF5/OF6) and civilians (London)
Oceania
Australia
The Australian Defence College (ADC) was officially opened in 1999 in Canberra. It is a Joint organisation, and comprises:
the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies (CDSS), Weston Creek,
the Australian Command and Staff College (ACSC), Weston Creek, and
the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA).
Prior to the establishment of the Australian Command and Staff College, middle management officer Command and Staff training was conducted at separate single Service staff colleges:
the RAN Staff Course at the RAN Staff College at HMAS Penguin in Sydney
the Army Command and Staff Course was conducted at the Army Command and Staff College at Fort Queenscliff in Victoria; and
the RAAF Staff Course at the RAAF Staff College at RAAF Base Fairbairn in Canberra.
New Zealand
New Zealand Defence College
Intercontinental
NATO
NATO Defence College
See also
Command and Staff College (disambiguation)
International Association for Military Pedagogy
International Society of Military Sciences
Staff (military)
War college
References
fr:École militaire