JCWS-H educates officers and builds upon the foundation established in JPME Phase I. The course prepares officers (O-4 to O-6) for joint duty assignments and provides JPME Phase II credit. JCWS-H is primarily a Reserve Component officer course. To gain Total Force perspective, interagency students, Active Component officers (USMC & USAF only), and senior non-commissioned officers are encouraged to apply. To facilitate full utilization of course seats, components and Services may agree to reallocate unused quotas. JCWS-H students shall be JPME Phase I graduates.

In this age, I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are, if you cannot create harmony—even vicious harmony—on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete. We have got to have officers who can create harmony across all those lines. -- General Mattis, May 2010 JFCOM Conference