Curriculum Vitae

The Pentagon has decided to reestablish the charter for the National Defense University's board of visitors, according to a Federal Register notice published yesterday:

The Board shall provide independent advice and recommendations on the overall management and governance of the National Defense University in achieving its mission.

The Board shall report to the Deputy Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Defense through the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President of the National Defense University. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff may act upon the Board's advice and recommendations. The Board shall be comprised of no more than twelve members, who are appointed by the Secretary of Defense. The members are eminent authorities in the fields of defense, management, leadership, academia, national military strategy or joint planning at all levels of war, joint doctrine, joint command and control, or joint requirements and development. The Secretary of Defense may approve the appointment of Board members for one to four year terms of service, with annual renewals; however, no member, unless authorized by the Secretary of Defense, may serve more than two consecutive terms of service. This same term of service limitation also applies to any DoD authorized subcommittees. Board members appointed by the Secretary of Defense, who are not full-time or permanent part-time federal employees, shall be appointed to serve as experts and consultants under the authority of 5 U.S.C. 3109, and to serve as special government employees. In addition, all Board members, with the exception of travel and per diem for official travel, shall serve without compensation. Each Board member is appointed to provide advice on behalf of the government on the basis of his or her best judgment without representing any particular point of view and in a manner that is free from conflict of interest.

Inside the Pentagon reported last November that the Defense Department was facing shortfalls in the way it educates and trains military personnel for information operations designed to influence adversaries' decisions:

The Defense Department has "come up short" in training and educating information-operations personnel who can properly assess situations and advise leaders on how to affect enemies' decisions, Austin Branch, the Pentagon's director for information operations, said Monday at an Association of Old Crows symposium in Washington.

Branch said the United States has not generated the type of talent required in the information-operations arena.

"This is Ph.D. level work," Branch said. "We can't leave that up to amateurs, though we've had amateurs do it. So that's why we have to focus on the brain power of the people who are involved in putting this together and advising our senior leaders on what decisions we recommend them to make."

To correct this deficiency, the Pentagon has placed an increased focus on beefing up that capability through reviewing defense courses and curriculum, a defense official said on condition of anonymity. Leaders are also gearing up to finish and implement a specific force development policy, the official added.

DOD hopes to execute this policy within months, the official said. The official could not put a date on when it would be finished, but said it is "moving pretty quickly because we want to implement."

DOD has held a series of force-development seminars and meetings with the services and defense officials to "determine exactly what the requirements are, what have we already been doing. What's been effective or not, how do we improve this," the official said. "It's about getting super-smart folks trained and educated in this space instead of amateurs."