Master of Science Degree- Joint Professional Military Education

The NDU CIC provides a JPME Phase II curriculum that produces national security leaders and advisors who develop the strategies and the necessary doctrine to successfully leverage information and cyberspace operations within the broader national security framework.

The NDU CIC’s JPME curriculum focuses on the information/cyberspace instrument of national security. It provides graduate-level education to senior military and civilian leaders with an emphasis on the military, government, and private sector dimensions of information/cyberspace as a critical component of national security strategy. The CIC program concentrates on developing the habits of mind, conceptual foundations, and cognitive faculties graduates will need at their highest level of strategic responsibility.

Students in the JPME II will receive a Master of Science in Government Information Leadership, with a concentration in National Security and Cyberspace Studies and JPME phase II credit.

Students in the National Security Cyberspace Studies Program will be able to:

• Apply a perspective that is Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational (JIIM).
• Demonstrate an expertise in strategic leadership, creative and critical thinking, and decision-making, combined with a thorough understanding and commitment to ethical conduct and exemplary leadership.
• Evaluate and apply the lessons of history with special focus on the impact of information access and dissemination.
• Evaluate the dynamics of international relations and the formulation of the information/cyberspace aspects of foreign policy.
• Apply the JIIM perspectives for the employment of information/cyberspace instruments.
• Evaluate the man-made terrain that underpins information and cyberspace operations.
• Evaluate how actions in cyberspace can at once be both strategic and tactical.
• Assess the health and strategic direction of the information/cyberspace industrial base.
• Evaluate the IT/cyber acquisition processes, resource policies, resource management, and operational contract support.

Student Criteria:

Selection for this program is highly competitive and is done through a potential student's Senior Service College (SSC) selection process.

Students for the NDU CIC JPME must be in the grade of O-5 and O-6 who have already received credit for completing a CJCS-accredited program of JPME Phase I or received equivalent JPME Phase I credit as articulated in CJCSI 1800.01E. Civilian students are equivalent to GS-15 and SES-1. The desired mix of seminar students includes military officers from all three Military Departments, the U.S. Coast Guard, international officers, DoD civilians, Federal Agency civilians, and the private sector. The curriculum is designed for students who currently serve in, have an interest in, or may have the need to develop strategy with those who serve in the information/cyberspace domain. A successful student does not need technical expertise, but must possess the intellectual curiosity that makes them receptive to new ideas and new approaches to understanding national security.