The Infusion of Language, Regional, and Cultural Content into Military Education

This report documents the Institute for Defense Analyses' examination of the infusion of language, regional, and cultural (LRC) content into Professional Military Education (PME) across the Services, from pre-commissioning through the General Officer/Flag Officer (GO/FO) level. In addition to an extensive literature review, data collection for this effort consisted of an extensive series of site visits and interviews with Professional Military Education Institutions (PMEIs) conducted between March 2010 and January 2011. Interviews were held with the full range of Service PME representatives, Service directorates, and training offices in order to obtain a thorough understanding of LRC within the PME landscape.  At present there are no established standards for LRC content for PME within or across the Services. Moreover, PME itself is a “moving target,” evolving with the needs of DoD and its components. It follows that the role of and benefits conferred through different approaches to instituting LRC curricula are affected by changes in military requirements, politics, doctrine, leadership, personalities, and vary by branch, school, and Service.