Library:  Main Page — Professional Development (A) — Defense Enterprise (E) — Force Structure (F) — Modernization (M) — Personnel (P) — Readiness (R) — Special Enterprises (S) — Resource Management (X) — References (Z)

Contact

The administrator for this site is Tom Galvin, Associate Professor of Resource Management at the U.S. Army War College. Please contact him at thomas.galvin@armywarcollege.edu

Purpose

This Library serves as a central repository for defense management related materials. The aim is to integrate the educational mission of the U.S. Army War College with the knowledge management requirements of a defense management community of practice. There are many resources on the web that have material and resources on both theory and practice in defense management, but they tend to: (a) not be synthesized for practical use — each agency establishes repositories of their own products, but there are few who put all of it together in one place, (b) tend to remove or purge old versions of resources, which can be a problem for defense management scholars looking to piece together the histories of major decisions, or (c) tend to disappear during agency reorganizations or closures. Repositories also tend to file things chronologically, rather than by topic, making it challenging for new students of defense management to find basic resources on a topic. And finally, defense management has historically been treated as a US thing, when in fact most democratic nations have a lot of things in common with the US when it comes to how the business of the military is runs. The processes and systems in use may differ, but the decisions vexing defense leaders are essentially the same.

This Library uses an aisle-rack-shelf metaphor as an organizing construct using the Strategic Choices Model as its base. The Strategic Choices Model is based on the common tension facing defense leaders on where to invest appropriated funds — Force Structure? Modernization? or Readiness? Each is assigned an Aisle (coded as F, M, and R, respectively). We have also established Aisle E for the defense enterprise itself, that covers the management science aspects of militaries. Two more Aisles are dedicated to the resources themselves — personnel (Aisle P) and funding (Aisle X). Next, Aisle S covers what we refer to as a special enterprises, communities of practice within the military whose domains of expertise are unique such that they fall outside the conventional categories of the other racks. These include legal, medical, cyber, the chaplaincy, and others.

Aisle Z is a reference aisle that consolidates a wealth of publications related to defense management, such as prominent journals and strategic documents.

Finally, Aisle A is for professional development and is where students can access educational texts and activities on foundational skills and knowledge necessary to be success as a defense manager.

This Library is (perpetually) under construction and will continue to be into the future. Consider it as a ‘wiki’ for defense management resources! We are hoping that you will help us build the library such that we can make it more useful and widely available to future War College students and faculty.

Development of the Site

This website is currently in the PILOT III stage

In 2021, the first pilot or proof of concept was developed using Microsoft Teams. It contains about 400 files and had limited functionality with only four aisles populated. The second pilot was initiated in 2022 and saw the Library migrated over to a Sharepoint site with a web interface. The Library grew to about 1200 files and there were resources in at least seven aisles, including the References sections. This two pilots were made available to select students.

The third pilot was activated on 3 January 2023 as a public-facing website using WordPress as a subdomain of armywarcollege.edu. It now boasts 1500 files and it far easier to maintain than the previous pilots. As a public resource, it is also accessible to practitioners so students and graduates alike can access and use the Library. However, there are significant areas of the Library that are yet unpopulated (for example, Aisle A is a stub), or have significant gaps in resources available (many of the racks with Aisle P – Personnel – are empty, as are most of the special enterprise racks).

General Plan for Initial Operational Capability (academic year 2025)

Among the features planned for Initial Operational Capability, August 2024.

• All racks and shelves have a basic foundational level of resources, including relevant regulations, policies, directives, doctrine, and critical issues.
• Each aisle and some racks will have integrative faculty-written resources that provide “101” or “201” level introductions to the topic areas. These are already being prepared as part of the Defense Management: Primer for Senior Leaders, 2nd edition which is under development.
• Develop of a governance structure to allow subject matter experts from across the defense enterprise to assist in or assume responsibility for particular content area.
• Full Operational Capability would be achieved by August 2025 for academic year 2026.

You can help!

Do you have resources to share and include in the Library? What is missing? Can you help out with administering and growing the site? Please reach out and lend us your time and expertise! Reach out to the site admin: thomas.galvin@armywarcollege.edu

Title image credit:  Jim Garamone​​​​​​​ via Defense.gov, public domain.

Library:  Main Page — Professional Development (A) — Defense Enterprise (E) — Force Structure (F) — Modernization (M) — Personnel (P) — Readiness (R) — Special Enterprises (S) — Resource Management (X) — References (Z)