Graduate Certificate in Land Warfare

This course addresses the application of strategy and process of the making of strategy, both of which deal with the preparation and use of military power to serve the ends of politics. The treatment is chronological, as determined by the various case studies, and two themes run throughout: the relationship of strategy and the strategic level of war to other levels of war, especially policy and the political level of war; and the difficulty inherent in the process of the making of strategy. Note: Not available for students who have previously taken MILS520.

This course is a study of land warfare from ancient times to the 21st century with emphasis on the evolution of land warfare and effects on strategy, doctrine, operations, tactics, and technology within the context of Western European, Mediterranean, and North American states, empires and kingdoms.

This course enables students to visualize the principles of war based upon the study of actual campaigns from various historical periods. Students "re-fight" selected campaigns using knowledge of war-fighting principles from course readings. Designed for students who need analytical tools to sharpen their military analysis of how campaigns are fought and won.

This course is a study of the contemporary tactical thought applicable to today's exigencies of conflict (i.e., conflicts requiring immediate attention or remedy). Students distinguish and analyze the conduct of warfare and practices of fighting believed to have the strongest potential against contemporary military and paramilitary forces.

This course uses the case study approach to compare and contrast modern urban warfare in different settings. Students study three urban conflicts [Stalingrad (1942/43), Hue City (1968), and Mogadishu (1992)] along with additional readings to gain an appreciation of urban warfare and its potential in the 21st century.

This course considers the nature of future military conflict, the history of future war doctrine, and the impact of current conflict on the conceptualization of the "next war." Students examine current, past, and future low-intensity as well as high-intensity conflicts, and the appropriate use of military force in the power projection role to influence a diplomatic resolution to a conflict. Rogue nations, and related cultural clashes, and religious factors are related to planning for future war.