ASU to offer master’s degree in war

The master's degree will be offered to active duty military members and others selected by the U.S. Department of War. It will focus on the intricacies of war and its goals, as well as strategies for improved international relations. Around a dozen students will begin the program this fall at ASU's Washington, D.C. location.

The type of program is among few others in the country, said Ryan Shaw, ASU managing director of strategic initiatives. It will eventually have capacity for up to 24 master's students, whom the university says will include some of the nation's top leaders in military defense.

"This is a small program and its the only one in the government," Shaw said. "So, certainly, no one is doing it the way we are doing it."

ASU won the bid from the U.S government this spring to take on the program. It was previously administered at Johns Hopkins University.

The studies will include seminars, traditional coursework and war games, which are strategy games intended to simulate warfare.

Students assume the role of someone in power, whether that be a military commander or president, and explore how different war scenarios play out. ASU hopes to update those systems by incorporating its own data analysis technology.

"The investments we made in 1941, how does that play out to the conclusion of a war in 1945?" Shaw said. "And what if we went back and made a different set of investments?"

The new addition at ASU comes as the U.S. remains involved in several major conflicts globally, which have reverberated in daily life across the nation. Those real-world results of war emphasize the importance of having education programs like those at ASU, Shaw said.

"We can hit targets. We can sink ships," Shaw said. "We can snatch dictators out of their bedrooms in the middle of the night if we want to. But where we've traditionally struggled is in connecting those battlefield military outcomes to enduring strategic outcomes."

Leaders behind the course said it will analyze war in a way that deviates from standard history classes. The focus reaches beyond chronological events to philosophy and political theory.

"Not just the conduct of battles, but war itself. What leads to it. How it can be avoided. What are its consequences over time?" Shaw said.

The new program will be housed in ASU's School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. Richard Avramenko, the director of the school, said faculty will be able to incorporate political philosophy seamlessly into the upcoming courses. That includes lessons in moderation, practical wisdom and ambition, he said.

"There's a constellation of virtues that our faculty teach and write about that cannot be separated from our military," Avramenko said.

There is interest in bringing in allied officers from other parts of the globe, Shaw said, potentially from the U.K. or Australia.

The course is a yearlong program, with selected students returning to their government or military service after receiving the master's degree.