JCWS Mission Statement
"The Joint and Combined Warfighting School (JCWS) produces graduates capable of creatively and effectively planning operational level warfighting for joint and combined military forces while integrating the effects of the United States Government, nongovernmental organizations, and intergovernmental organizations to ensure the success of Combatant and Joint Task Force Commanders operating within an uncertain operating environment."
JCWS conducts Phase II of Joint Professional Military Education. JPME Phase II completes the process of joint education for officers who qualified as joint qualified officers (JQOs).
Below are the Officer Professional Military Education Program (OPMEP) objectives that all JCWS graduates will obtain prior to graduation:
- JCWS Learning Areas and Objectives. JCWS incorporates the specific OPMEP (CJCSI 1800.01C, Appendix G to Enclosure E) as well as CJCS Special Areas of Emphasis, Congressional guidance and recommendations from the combatant commanders.
- JCWS uses the 13 Academic Objectives, described below, under the appropriate learning area to achieve the desired outcomes for JPME Phase II students. Those learning areas and objectives are as follows:
Learning Area 1 -- National Strategic Security Systems and Guidance, and Command Structures
a. Apply appropriate strategic security policies and guidance used in developing joint operational plans across the range of military operations to support national objectives.
b. Analyze the integration of all instruments of national power in achieving strategic objectives. Focus on the proper employment of the military instrument of national power at the joint force level both as a supported instrument and as a supporting instrument of national power.
Learning Area 2 -- Joint, Interagency and Multinational Capabilities
a. Synthesize the capabilities and limitations of all Services (own Service, other Services -- to include SOF) in achieving the appropriate strategic objectives in joint operations.
b. Analyze the capabilities and limitations of multinational forces in achieving the appropriate strategic objectives in coalition operations.
c. Analyze the capabilities and limitations of the interagency processes in achieving the appropriate strategic objectives in joint operational plans.
d. Comprehend the attributes of the future joint force and how this force will organize, plan, prepare and conduct operations.
e. Value a thoroughly joint perspective and appreciate the increased power available to commanders through joint, combined, interagency efforts and teamwork.
Learning Area 3 -- Information Operations
a. Analyze the principles, capabilities and limitations of information operations across the range of military operations and–- to include pre- and post-conflict operations.
b. Analyze the use of information operations to achieve desired effects across the spectrum of national security threats.
Learning Area 4 -- Joint Planning
a. Synthesize examples of campaign/theater planning and operations. Focus on the use of planning concepts, techniques and procedures as well as integration of battlespace support systems.
b. Analyze complex contingency operations for use of appropriate planning principles.
c. Apply current technology, modeling, simulation and wargaming to accomplish the synchronization, employment, support and transportation planning of the joint force.
d. Analyze the appropriate mix of battlespace support systems and functions to develop joint operational plans.
e. Comprehend the roles that factors such as geopolitics, geostrategy, culture and religion play in shaping planning and execution of joint force operations.
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JCWS ADVANCE READINGS
During the first three weeks of your JPME II education there are several readings from U.S. National Security documents and on the Operation Torch 1942-43 case study that may compete for your time and energy.
Although there is time in your schedule for research and reading, many students find it useful to refresh their memories about the details of these documents and campaign prior to their arrival at their JPME II course. When you read about Operation Torch relate the campaign to the six joint functions, which you can find in Joint Pub 3-0.
During the Registration process, there is a link to these readings labeled “JCWS Advance Readings” on the first page of the JFSC Data Enterprise System (DES). We strongly encourage students complete the JCWS Advance Readings.
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JCWS CURRICULUM
To accomplish the mission, JCWS delivers a rigorous and comprehensive curriculum incorporating the latest in joint operational concepts and joint lessons learned into classroom learning and exercise application.
The JCWS curriculum emphasizes the joint operational level of warfighting. It encompasses the integrated deployment, employment and synchronization of land, sea, air, space, and special operations forces. JCWS designed the curriculum for the faculty to teach using a scenario of events that supports a broader course of study. This expanded framework allows for an understanding of joint actions and processes as well as the environment within which they occur.
The JPME Phase II curriculum consists of the following seven courses and an elective program summarized below (see the next chapter for a detailed description of each course). The overall curriculum uses a background scenario, based on a fictitious combatant command, U.S. Africa Command (USAFCOM), to provide a framework for the ordering of lessons as well as provide a contextual framework for the assignments students complete as part of the lessons. The students in each seminar serve as members of the USAFCOM staff and, as part of the lessons, complete the strategic and operational requirements that represent actual assignments, tasks and missions that a real combatant command performs. This allows students to gain first-hand experience in the broad range of activities completed by combatant and other joint commands. The structure of lessons and practical exercises replicate normal staff requirements. The curriculum exposes the students to the replication of nearly two years of activities in a Combatant Commander’s area of responsibility (AOR).
The seven courses are Administration (ADM), Assessments, Papers and Current Events (APC), Strategy (STR), Operational Capabilities and Functions (OCF), Joint Planning Process (JPP), Exercises -- Purple Guardian, Purple Lightning and Purple Warrior (EX), and Contemporary Operating Environment (COE). JCWS schedules Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for core curriculum courses. JCWS normally sets aside Wednesdays for student research, electives classes and COE lessons.
The JCWS program uses an integrated learning concept. The courses, less ADM, build on previous instruction, exercises and simulations. As a result, we schedule nearly all lessons in accordance with selective constraints identified by each course director.
Each seminar functions independently with the students in each seminar serving as members of the USAFCOM staff and working curriculum-based requirements accordingly, either as individuals or as a team. Depending on the particular exercise or simulation, students have an opportunity to role-play a number of different staff positions found at a combatant command. In some situations students serve as members of the Combatant Commander’s planning staff, while in other cases they serve as members of the AFCOM Standing Joint Force Headquarters (SJFHQ) Staff.
The curriculum structures the lessons and practical exercises so that they serve to replicate normal staff requirements. In addition, the lesson developer built the scenario so the decisions students make during each exercise are cumulative. In other words, when students take actions in their seminar concerning an issue, their decisions affect the starting point of future exercises and influence later actions throughout the remainder of the curriculum. This cumulative approach ensures that the group is not only learning as part of a class, but also gaining a greater appreciation for the impact and outcomes of decisions and policies. The curriculum provides a great opportunity for personalized education. While each seminar’s faculty guides the students’ through the curriculum using the same OPMEP learning areas and lesson objectives, their lessons may vary in depth of coverage and teaching methodology based on the background of the students and their actions and decisions throughout the curriculum.
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Administration (ADM)
This first of the seven courses consists of staff and student administrative, orientation and assessment activities conducted throughout the 10-week curriculum. These lessons include such activities as in processing, the opening ceremony, seminar orientation, end of course counseling, and Service workshops. Other lessons include the pre- and post-Inter-Service Perceptions Instrument (ISPI) and a graduation exercise. The program's educational processes and extracurricular activities emphasize "jointness” with a particular focus on achieving changes in Joint Attitudes and Perspectives. JCWS schedules various activities that support this course; however, they are not included as separate lessons with formal lesson plans. These include scheduled events such as, extracurricular seminar athletics (organized volleyball or softball competition managed by MWR), class and seminar social activities, the seminar photo, and guest speaker luncheons. The joint nature of the college and multi-service environment along with the formal and informal social aspects of the school reinforce the desired joint perspective emphasized throughout the ADM course. Specifically, the ADM course and associated events provide opportunities for students to experience joint trust, respect, acceptance, appreciation, and understanding of other military services through education, athletics, and social interaction during the entire JCWS curriculum.
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Assessments, Papers and Current Events (APC)
This course consists of four lessons: The Current Events Lesson provides seminars 30 minutes each morning except Wednesdays to discuss current events and how these events relate to the curriculum. The remainder of the APC course consists of formal assessment and evaluation tools; Mid-Term and Final essay examinations and a collaborative research paper. The students collaboratively develop, under the supervision of a faculty advisor, a Joint Critical Analysis or Campaign Critical Analysis (JCA/CCA) paper, 12-14 pages in length. The paper demonstrates critical research, thought and analysis by the students. The collaborative research paper allows three students from different Services to select a contemporary joint issue or a historical campaign and develop a thesis requiring graduate-level research and writing. The JCA/CCA research and writing requirement fulfills a variety of important functions within the curriculum.
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STRATEGY (STR)
This course examines warfare primarily at the national and theater level. The course focuses the students’ attention at a high level of strategic decision-making, thus establishing the primary scenario used as a teaching vehicle in the rest of the curriculum. The strategy course also generates the production of products and strategic direction to support the follow-on lessons and courses. It examines both broad and specific issues of joint staff and combatant command-level problems and decisions required to formulate a military strategy and supporting force structure for conventional war in a distant theater -- USAFCOM. The theater contains a significant threat to our national interests. The STR course emphasizes how national strategies, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Joint Staff, and the combatant commanders affect the strategic synchronization (mobilizations, deployment, employment, sustainment, and redeployment) of joint forces. The course uses the Joint Strategic Planning System (JSPS) and other related systems as tools in teaching high-level decision-making.
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OPERATIONAL CAPABILITIES AND FUNCTIONS (OCF)
The focus of this course is the study of operational design across the range of military operations (ROMO). The course begins with the students examining the roles, functions, capabilities, and limitations of the Services. It then focuses on the operational design of campaigns and the enablers, such as command and control of a joint force, information operations (IO), Joint Interagency Coordination Group (JIACG) operations, and multinational operations. The OCF course prepares students with the foundation of Service and multinational capabilities and functions as they move into the detailed Joint Planning Process and Exercise courses.
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Joint Planning Process (JPP)
This course focuses on the contingency planning process and its procedures as described in the Joint Operation Planning and Execution System (JOPES) publications CJCS Manuals 3122.1A, 02C and 03C and , Joint Pub 5-0. The course builds on all the instruction and student assignments completed in the preceding STR and OCF courses, as well as material presented during JPME Phase I courses. This course affords students the opportunity to apply their understanding of JOPES, the capabilities and limitations of the forces they analyzed in OCF, and the theater strategy and security cooperation plans developed during STR to a develop a seminar specific contingency plan for USAFCOM.
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CONTEMPORARY OPERATING ENVIRONMENT (COE)
This set of six lessons focuses the students on the current and future environments in which they will operate after graduation. The heart of the lessons are presentations and discussions by recognized experts in various aspects of the current world environment. The COE course content covers global issues, terrorism, religion, insurgencies and transformation. The course offers students the opportunity to question and discuss the issues with experts who can help students understand the world’s current security environment. Students can use this current information to help them develop solutions to issues they will confront in future assignments. The information presented in these lectures and discussions also becomes an integral part of the exercises and planning efforts that the students complete during the course.
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EXERCISES
There are three exercises in this course. The exercises present students with unique challenges across the ROMO. During each exercise, students develop plans to address challenges in specific operational environments.
PURPLE GUARDIAN (PG) This seven-hour lesson consists of an introductory briefing, a presentation from the Joint Center for Operational Analysis on Defense Support to Civil Authorities (DSCA) and a series of exercise scenarios. Students role-play as members of the Northern Command Standing Joint Forces Headquarters (SJFHQ). The seminars conduct this exercise using an in-house developed simulation. The simulation’s scenarios provide students an opportunity to explore the unique intricacies and special demands of the emerging homeland security/homeland defense missions (HLS/HLD) in the unique interagency environment that USNORTHCOM operates on a daily basis.
PURPLE LIGHTNING (PL) This twelve-hour faculty guided practical exercise focuses on humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and peace enforcement as well as a host of other issues for the use of the military element of national power. The exercise helps students understand the initial steps of Phase II of the Crisis Action Planning (CAP) process. Specifically the requirement to analyze a situation for tasks, develop a mission statement, commander’s intent (end state), and a concept of operations for a crisis in the USAFCOM AOR. PL gives the students the opportunity to develop solutions for a number of joint force command and control, battle space management, theater strategic and other operational issues.
PURPLE WARRIOR (PW) PW the culminating exercise presents the students a daunting political-military crisis that includes significant multinational and interagency issues. This five-day exercise focuses on planning the movement of expeditionary joint forces into a Joint Operating Area (JOA). The JOA has a mid-to-high level/intensity threat environment. Students apply the processes learned during JPP, the guidance developed during the Strategy course, and the capabilities and doctrine of the OCF course to a complex contingency. They develop an operation plan. The plan integrates coalition and interagency partners. This exercise allows the faculty to assess how well students understand operational design, campaign planning, existing joint doctrine and the joint planning process. Working as a SJFHQ at the USAFCOM command, students analyze the politico-military factors driving the crisis and recommend whole-of-government solutions to resolve or mitigate the crisis. While diplomatic efforts are working, students will develop an operation plan using the time-sensitive CAP process. When those diplomatic efforts fail to resolve the crisis, students execute their plan for the defense of an allied nation.
Significant automated data processing support is available to the students during the exercise. Students use the JFAST program to develop a transportation-feasible TPFDD for the operation plan. The C2PC program in conjunction with the JFSC wargaming model (AJCOM) provides situational awareness to the students over the course of the exercise. A messaging system program provides communication links between the seminar and the outside world during the exercise. In the later stages of the exercise, students transition to the JTF level for the execution of the operation plan and the subsequent stability operations and reconstruction effort. The student’s use the seminar’s developed JTF level OPORD for the CJCS (faculty) to brief the JTF deployment and employment plans (air, land, sea, space, and special operations). Upon completion of major combat operations, students develop and brief a detailed plan dealing with a complex reconstruction effort and the transition to UN control.
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Electives Program
Electives compliment the core curriculum by reserving a portion of the curriculum for courses tailored to the diversified needs of students during their joint education. The objective is for students to develop greater knowledge and understanding in areas related to the combatant commands, specific staff sections and other subjects related to joint duty. The faculty presents the lessons on Wednesday mornings. Each elective course consists of eight classes of two hours -- 16 classroom hours-- on a specific subject. The faculty provides the students with required readings and the parameters for a required research project. JCWS at the request of the Combatant Commands places students who have been members of a Combatant Command for less than six months or enroute to one of the Combatant Commands in their respective Combatant Command elective.
There is more information on the JFSC Elective Program on this website in the NAVIGATION banner at Schools & Academic Programs then at Electives. In this section there is a listing of the Electives and a short description of each Elective.
In addition, a variety of trips and visits off-campus are available to the faculty to enrich student experiences during portions of the curriculum. Faculty frequently schedule visits to available U.S. Navy ships to see potential C2 platforms as well observe first hand the unique capability of the Navy. This type of activity also assists in demonstrating a Service’s capabilities, and limitations. The resources of the MacArthur Memorial help provide critical insight and historical perspective for theater level operations in the Pacific during World War II and the Korean War. The Field Research Trip (FR) to the Yorktown Battlefield as part of the core OCF lessons enhances the students’ understanding of the Campaign. The Yorktown Campaign is an enduring joint and multinational American success. The FR to Yorktown often encourages students to attend the optional Gettysburg Campaign staff ride. Over a weekend, students are encouraged to travel to the Gettysburg Battlefield for a staff ride conducted by our resident Gettysburg scholar, Dr Vardell Nesmith. The Resources available at Langley AFB, the U.S. Army’s Transportation Center and School at Fort Eustis and Fort Story, and the Joint Training Analysis and Simulation Center of JFCOM in Suffolk all provide superb opportunities to expand the students’ understanding of component and joint issues.
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Last Updated: 14 March 2008
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