For the Army to prepare its leaders for the challenges of tomorrow’s wars, two elements are vital: training and education. Separate activities, the two are interlinked and both weigh heavily on the Army’s readiness. Units must be truly challenged in training environments that reflect the realities of today’s battlefield. And those units must be lead by leaders who have been in classrooms where they hone the critical thinking skills necessary to identify, navigate, and solve battlefield problems.
This is not a new phenomenon, of course. Both training and education have always been key elements of the US Army’s readiness. But as new battlefield challenges arise and new technologies emerge, the character of warfare is changing—faster than ever. Amid that rapid change, keeping ahead of the adversaries we might fight requires that, arguably more than ever before, we have to get training and education right. The Army’s success in tomorrow’s wars rests on it.
To explore this subject, John Amble is joined by on this episode by a guest who brings unique perspectives on both education and training to the discussion. Colonel Ethan Diven is the provost of Army University and deputy commandant of the Army Command and General Staff College, and before taking those roles he served as the commander of the operations group at the National Training Center. Listen as he shares his insights on how the Army is adapting its training and education—as well as the most critical areas that require the Army’s attention in the future—in order to meet the challenges of the modern battlefield.
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Image credit: Sara Hauck, Army University