Generals in the classroom: Joint professional national security education in Israel and the United States

The national security realm poses great challenges to senior military officers and civilian officials. These leaders oftentimes attend designated Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) institutions as a prerequisite for their futrue appointments. The article examines how these colleges and universities instill in their graduates the intellectual capacity to effectively engage and solve macro-level and acute strategic challenges as well as employ critical thinking skills to ensure intellectual agility and flexibility. The article compares the Israel National Defense College (INDC) and the National Defense University (NDU) to identify the differences and similarities between the two institutions and explain what it says about the Israeli and the American strategic culture and approach to the future of national security.