College Courses specially designed for Reserve officers are offered each year from the Naval War College and the National Defense University. The Naval War College's Reserve Officer National Security Decision Making Course is open to O-4's and above. The course requires a Secret Security Clearance. Course content is drawn from changes in the national security environment, foundations to national security, competition for national resources, international institutions and collective security and various alternatives for downsizing.
Specific attention is given to nuclear strategic mobility forces, and reserve forces.
Crisis response cases involving Lebanon and other contingencies are studied as guidelines for future use of military force. The course typically concludes with a resource constrained total force structure problem. The course content centers on the analytical study of war. The objective of this course is to acquaint officers with the fundamentals of using war as an instrument of foreign policy from an historical and contemporary perspective, to demonstrate the perennial dilemmas facing statesmen and senior officers, and to explore the full range of options available to decision makers in the fields of policy and strategy. Students gain a broader understanding of the decision making process and enhance their capability to participate.