United States Army War College

• 1. Introduction

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  The United States Army War College sits on a 500-acre campus at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania. On the 21st of February 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt attended the Masonic laying of the cornerstone of Roosevelt Hall. The ceremony took place at Washington Barracks in Washington, D.C. The institution had existed for barely sixteen months. Its stated mission comes from U.S. Army Regulation 10-87. The college exists to educate leaders for service at the strategic level while advancing knowledge in the global application of landpower. What drove a Secretary of War and a sitting president to build this school from the lessons of a recent war? And why, less than two decades after its founding, would a different U.S. president intervene to force the institution to curtail its own activities?

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• 2. Founding and First Principles

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  Secretary of War Elihu Root and President Theodore Roosevelt drew on the lessons of the Spanish-American War to create the Army War College. It was formally established by General Order 155 on the 27th of November 1901. Washington Barracks in Washington, D.C. was chosen as the site. Major General Samuel B. M. Young became the college's first president in July 1902. The first class of students arrived in 1904.

  Research and instruction shaped the institution from its first years. The curriculum addressed leadership, strategy, and joint-service operations. The college was positioned alongside the Naval War College and the USAF Air War College as one of the country's senior service colleges. By 1916, those activities had drawn the direct attention of the White House.

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• 3. Wilson's Challenge

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  In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson leveled an accusation against the Army War College and its president, Montgomery M. Macomb. Wilson charged that students and staff were planning to take part in an offensive war. The United States had not yet entered World War I.

  Macomb countered that the college was concerned only with the intellectual growth and professional development of its students. Wilson was not persuaded. He insisted the school curtail its activities to preserve American neutrality. Malin Craig later served as commandant and was appointed Chief of Staff of the United States Army in 1936. Walter S. Grant succeeded him in that role. The institution's most complete disruption would come not from presidential pressure but through a second world war.

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• 4. Three Campuses

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  World War II brought the college to a complete halt. The institution closed in the 1940s after more than four decades at Washington Barracks. It did not reopen until 1950, when it reconstituted at Fort Leavenworth. One year later it moved to Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania, where it has remained.

  On the 2nd of October 2025, the college was redesignated and reassigned from direct reporting to the Chief of Staff of the Army. It was placed under the Combined Arms Command, itself a subordinate unit of the United States Army Transformation and Training Command. William Westmoreland, listed in the Class of 1951, was among the first graduates to emerge after the college's post-war reopening at Fort Leavenworth.

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• 5. A Generation of Commanders

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  John A. Lejeune and Hunter Liggett both graduated in the Class of 1910, among the college's earliest recorded alumni. Washington Barracks, where those early classes studied, later took the name Fort Lesley J. McNair. The name honors Lesley J. McNair, Class of 1929, himself a graduate of the same institution.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower attended in the Class of 1928. The Class of 1932 included George S. Patton Jr. and six other graduates now on the college's notable alumni list. Omar Bradley attended in 1934. Matthew Ridgway, Mark W. Clark, and Walter Bedell Smith all graduated in the Class of 1937. H. Norman Schwarzkopf is recorded in the Class of 1973, and Lloyd Austin in 1996.

  Muhammadu Buhari, representing the Nigerian Army, graduated in the Class of 1980 and later became President of Nigeria. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of the Egyptian Army completed the program in 2006 and became President of Egypt. Chiu Kuo-cheng, Class of 1999, went on to serve as Taiwan's Minister of National Defense. Rizwan Akhtar and Naveed Mukhtar, successive Directors General of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, graduated in 2008 and 2011 respectively. Paul M. Nakasone is listed in the Class of 2007.

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• 6. Inside the Curriculum

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  Approximately 800 students are enrolled at any one time, drawn from Army colonels and lieutenant colonels, government officials, and civilians. Half study through a two-year distance learning program. The other half attend a ten-month, on-campus residential program. Both tracks lead to a master's degree in Strategic Studies.

  The Basic Strategic Art Program was founded in 2003 for officers newly designated into Functional Area 59, the Strategist specialty. Its purpose was to introduce them to strategy and to build the skills needed for progressive development in that role. Functional Area 59 officers have been deployed to combat since the September 11 attacks in 2001. Graduates of the program have held key positions in Iraq, Afghanistan, every combatant command, and at the Pentagon.

  The Center for Strategic Leadership uses Collins Hall as its primary facility. From there, it hosts workshops, symposia, conferences, games, and exercises focused on strategic leadership and national security. The Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute serves as the U.S. Military's Center of Excellence for Stability and Peace Operations. Its mission spans the strategic and operational levels, working to improve military, civilian agency, international, and multinational capabilities. Ejup Maqedonci of Kosovo, Class of 2019, completed the college's program and later served as Kosovo's Minister of Defense.

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