This report is intended to inform U.S. personnel, NATO Allies, and other Euro-Atlantic governments of the Defense Education Enhancement Program's status from 2018 to 2020, its opportunities and challenges, and ways the program can be improved. For institutional capacity building practitioners, this report also offers general lessons on how professional military education can support institutional change, sustainment, and development.
The Challenges and Opportunities of Institutional Capacity Building Through Professional Military Education
Lessons from the Defense Education Enhancement Program
Download
Download eBook for Free
| Format | File Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PDF file | 0.7 MB | Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 10 or higher for the best experience. |
Purchase
Purchase Print Copy
| Format | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add to Cart | Paperback58 pages | $18.00 | $14.40 20% Web Discount |
Research Questions
- How can PME support institutional change and development?
- What are best practices for institutional capacity building?
- What are the best defense education assessment, monitoring, and evaluations tools?
Established in 2007 through a combined effort by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) International Staff and the Partnership for Peace Consortium, the Defense Education Enhancement Program (DEEP) supports institutional capacity building (ICB) objectives, such as building defense capacity and interoperability, by providing assistance in modern curriculum development (what to teach), faculty development (how to teach), and institutional support (administration and management) for NATO partner professional military education (PME) schools. This report is intended to inform U.S. personnel, NATO Allies, and other Euro-Atlantic governments of DEEP's status from 2018 to 2020, its opportunities and challenges, and ways the program can be improved. The report features three case studies: Armenia, Tunisia, and Ukraine. Ukraine findings might be of particular interest in light of the Russian-Ukraine War. For ICB practitioners, this report also offers general lessons on how PME can support institutional change, sustainment, and development.
Key Findings
Disruption can spur innovation
- After some initial challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, most program activities and events transitioned to a virtual platform, giving providers the ability to connect with partners and sustain efforts throughout the pandemic.
Expanding data collection is critical
- Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives are important, but assessment, monitoring, and evaluation are necessary for measuring key outcomes.
Building trust is key to collaboration
- Relationship building is a slow process that requires patience.
- Where multinational support can be conducted, partner countries should be paired with providers with whom they might be more comfortable because of shared military size, missions, resources, language, culture, or history.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Introduction
Chapter Two
Program Structure, Objectives, and Recent Efforts
Chapter Three
Program Challenges and Drivers of Success
Chapter Four
Lessons Learned and Best Practices
Chapter Five
Conclusion
Research conducted by
This research was sponsored by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency and conducted within the Forces and Resources Policy Center of the RAND National Security Research Division (NSRD).
This report is part of the RAND Corporation Research report series. RAND reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.
This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.