The Department of Command, Leadership, and Management (DCLM) is a department of the U.S. Army War College located at Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. DCLM provides seminar teaching in three of the six core curriculum courses of the resident program and offers electives in the areas of responsible command, leadership, and management.


The department is also responsible for:

• The National Capital Region/Washington D.C. Field Trip.
• The Omar Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership.
• The Omar Bradley Chair Elective.

Strategic Thinking (ST)
The first course of the academic year, Strategic Thinking is designed to help reacquaint students with the skills and habits necessary for success in graduate-level education and to directly address selected subjects that fall within the cognitive domain of strategic leadership.

The Strategic Thinking course provides a foundation to comprehend and apply thinking skills needed by senior leaders that will continue throughout the academic year and into future assignments. The course is designed to present material in ways that will encourage personal and professional growth through reflection, critical assessment, and the ability to creatively and holistically synthesize multiple, complex and competing ideas.

Strategic Leadership (SL)
The Strategic Leadership course introduces students to the concepts and skills required of leaders within the strategic environment through an examination of responsible command, leadership, and management practices.

The Strategic Leadership course continues the development of leadership at three levels: Direct (taught at the basic and captain's level courses), Organizational (taught at the intermediate-level education course), and Strategic (taught at the USAWC).

Unique sets of knowledge, skills, and abilities that are much more prevalent at the strategic level than in the other two levels of leadership are examined. Building on the students' experiences, this course provides the foundation for the application of strategic-level skills and competencies throughout the academic year and into the future.

Strategic leaders scan the environment, anticipate change proactively, develop a vision on where they see their organization in 10-20 years, align the organization's culture and climate with their vision and their current work force, and then create and maintain an ethics and value-based set within their organization that reinforces the organizations vision.

Defense Management (DM)
The third area of core instruction, entitled DM, focuses on the processes and systems within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff and the military departments that develop and produce trained and ready forces and their resultant capabilities for employment by the Combatant Commanders. This course builds on earlier material and requires students to analyze, evaluate, and formulate resourcing and force structure issues and responses.

The course provides students the opportunity to learn how forces are designed, resourced, and provided to the Combatant Commanders. A key component of the course examines how the Department of Defense allocates its resources and participates in the federal budgetary processes.

Elective Courses Offered by DCLM