The Joint Advanced Warfighting School (JAWS) is a part of the Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC), located in Norfolk, VA. JFSC is one of the five colleges within the National Defense University. JAWS was established in 2004 following a proposal by Andrew Marshall, then the director of the Office of Net Assessment, and the strong support of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers. Modelled after the Service’s advanced studies programs, JAWS provides the Joint Staff, the Combatant Commands, allied militaries, and other U.S. government agencies with graduates expert in the joint planning processes and capable of critical analysis in the application of all aspects of national power across the full range of military operations.

The Joint Advanced Warfighting School (JAWS) educates approximately 45 U.S. military officers and international fellows selected by their service in the grade of O-5 and O-6, as well as U.S. interagency civilians of equivalent experience and position each year.

Typically, a JAWS class comprises three seminars of up to fifteen students each. JAWS seminars maintain a deliberate mixture of students representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Space Force, Coast Guard, interagency civilians, and international fellows. JAWS assigns students to seminars with the intent to provide an optimum mix of service, grade, experience, and occupational specialty. The composition of each seminar changes as the year progresses, broadening student engagement across the class and deepening professional relationships among peers.

The JAWS faculty consists of civilian professors who hold a terminal degree in their relevant field and senior officers with joint experience from all services. In addition to highly qualified faculty, students have access to members of the JAWS Senior Fellows Program, including general/flag officers and ambassadors. In addition to Senior Fellows, JAWS maintains access to an impressive line-up of guest speakers who are thought leaders in variety of subjects relevant to joint warfighting.

Welcome!

On behalf of the Faculty and Staff of the elite Joint Advanced Warfighting School (JAWS), I want to congratulate you on being selected to represent your nation, department, or agency in the upcoming academic year’s class of the Joint Advanced Warfighting School (JAWS). Your selection is indicative of the time and effort you have invested as a military professional in the service of our nation and is a testament to your ability to thrive in demanding situations. 

The school’s mission is to prepare select military officers and civilians to serve in strategic leadership positions and lead the development of theater strategies, campaigns, and operations for the employment of the Joint Force in support of national goals.

Through delivery of an integrated curriculum focused on the operational employment of joint and coalition military forces, the school produces historically informed, strategically minded, joint warfighters.

The JAWS curriculum is comprised of five fields of study:

1. The Theory & History of War Field of Study enables students to synthesize historical, current, and future environments, domains, theories, and concepts as they apply to joint warfighting.
2. The Strategy Field of Study enables students to propose military strategies in support of joint warfighting that optimizes ends, ways, and means, in concert with the other instruments of power.
3. The Operational Art & Campaign Planning Field of Study enables students to produce military plans for the operational employment of joint and coalition forces in support of joint warfighting during peace and war.
4. The Effective Communication Field of Study enables students to compose clear and succinct communications based on critical analysis in written and oral form that is persuasive and appropriate to the audience and context. 
5. The Joint Synthesis Field of Study enables students to represent the value of integrating diverse attitudes, perspectives, and capabilities based on an appreciation of the nature of the joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational environment.

In addition to guest lectures and seminar discussions, the JAWS curriculum includes multiple field research trips, exercises, and key events:

1. Theory & History hosts a day field research trip to a World War II Aviation Museum in the local area and an overnight field research trip to the US battlefields of Yorktown and Fredericksburg in August.
2. Strategy hosts a week-long field research trip to Washington, D.C. in September and two 1-week strategy development exercises in December.
3. Operational Art & Campaign Planning hosts multiple planning exercises during each of their four classes in the spring.
4. Effective Communication hosts a public speaking symposium in the spring.
5. Joint Synthesis hosts a week-long exercise with students from the Swedish Defence University (SeDU) in March, a two-week field research trip to Guam, Saipan, and allied nations in April, a two-week Capstone exercise in May and oral comprehensive examinations just before graduation in June.

As graduates of JAWS earn both Joint Professional Military Education – Level II certification and a fully-accredited Master of Science degree in Joint Campaign Planning and Strategy, the Effective Communication Field of Study requires students to demonstrate the ability to conduct, compose, and present graduate-level research. During the initial weeks of the program, students will select one of several elective research seminars to personalize their academic experience and provide the structured environment to help them satisfy their 40-page Individual Strategic Research Paper (ISRP) requirement by mid-spring. Incoming students will benefit from having some idea of what research topics might interest them, but do not need to have a formal plan when they arrive.

Your presence is important to us and the academic environment we seek for all our students. Your unique perspectives will improve the experience every graduate takes away from their year at JAWS. Faculty, staff, and former students from the program will all attest that this coming year will be challenging, but they will also assure you that everyone here is single-mindedly focused on helping you be successful as a student and a professional warfighter.  Again, congratulations and welcome.  Be elite!

JEFFREY T. DANIELSON
Colonel, USAF
Director
Joint Advanced Warfighting School