This course examines the causes, characteristics, and consequences of military doctrine employed by U.S. adversaries. The course entails three major sections. First, the course provides theoretical and conceptual frameworks for characterizing military doctrine, explaining the origins of military doctrine, and identifying the effects of military doctrine on military and political outcomes. Second, the course applies those frameworks to the study of military doctrine in U.S. adversaries, as defined by the U.S. National Defense Strategy. This section will address conventional military doctrine across multiple domains and nuclear doctrine in actors such as the People’s Republic of China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. Third, cadets will apply lessons learned from the course to a pair of tabletop exercises, including one scenario in the European theater and one scenario in the Indo-Pacific theater.

This course follows a seminar style, in which cadets are expected to read all assigned material and arrive prepared to actively discuss and debate the readings in class. Cadets will be graded on four items: first, participation in classroom discussions; second, two response papers that evaluate the application of theoretical and conceptual models to debates regarding adversary doctrine; third, participation in the two tabletop exercises; and fourth, a final paper identifying policy recommendations for responding to the crisis scenario underpinning the final tabletop exercise. Combined, these measures will equip cadets with the necessary tools to understand and anticipate adversary military behavior, as well as experiential learning opportunities to enable thinking on how to counter the challenges posed by U.S. adversaries.