• Home
  • Current congress
  • Public Website
  • My papers
  • root
  • browse
  • IAC-19
  • E1
  • 4
  • paper
  • Postgraduate Space Education for Military Space Professionals: A Case Study of the Schriever Scholars Space Concentration

    Paper number

    IAC-19,E1,4,5,x54089

    Author

    Prof.Dr. Brent Ziarnick, United States, Air University

    Coauthor

    Prof. Andrea Harrington, United States, Air University

    Coauthor

    Mr. Peter Garretson, United States, Air University

    Coauthor

    Ms. Brianna Frey, United States, Air University

    Coauthor

    Mr. Justin Lugo, United States, Air University

    Year

    2019

    Abstract
    The Schriever Scholars space concentration is United States Air Force’s first year long, space-centric Professional Military Education (PME) curriculum.  The goals of the program are to train strategists capable of advancing comprehensive national spacepower through best military advice, the design of policies and strategies to advance spacepower, and the integration of space capabilities within joint and combined plans for domain shaping and multi-domain operations.  Hosted at the Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), Graduates receive a Master of Military Operational Arts and Science degree.  The concentration graduates its first class of 13 Joint Officers in June 2019.
    
    Developed in late 2017 to respond to Congressional and Air Force concerns over shortfalls in space education among Department of Defense officers, the curriculum grew out of earlier efforts, such as the Space Horizons Task Force.   The concentration paired the best of the ACSC core curriculum (including courses in war theory, international relations, and joint warfare) with unique courses on space history, theory, planning, and modern operations, culminating in a final research paper. 
    
    Within the 2018-2019 Academic Year, both the Air Force Chief of Staff and the Commander of Air Force Space Command made policy statements declaring space was a warfighting domain.  Shortly thereafter, President Trump ordered the US Department of defense to immediately begin the process of establishing the Space Force as a sixth branch of the US Military.  The combination of a rapidly changing external policy environment with strong public and political interest, and high level internal interest in seeking insight from the students created a unique laboratory to develop lessons learned for postgraduate space education.
    
    This paper first describes the initial concentration structure and its intended goals.  It then explores the successes and challenges from the first year and develops the lessons learned for postgraduate education of military space professionals.  Lastly, the paper analyzes how these lessons learned are being applied to the substantive changes for the 2019-2020 Schriever Scholars curriculum, such as student selection and other structural changes to maximize the program’s impact on the space community and how our lessons learned can be applied to other emerging postgraduate space education programs. The paper also explores the nature of the military space profession and the need for comprehensive space strategy to strike a balance between the state’s need for security and the promise of the peaceful uses of space for commerce and exploration by law abiding nations.
    Abstract document

    IAC-19,E1,4,5,x54089.brief.pdf

    Manuscript document

    IAC-19,E1,4,5,x54089.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

    To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.