Professional Military Education
The U.S. Armed Forces invests heavily in its servicemembers' development — but misused, PME becomes a weapon for indoctrinating future leaders. It's time to put "war" back in the war colleges.
While the ROTC program is not technically part of the U.S. military's Professional Military Education institutions, it's America's foundational program for developing and commissioning new officers out of college. As much as 70 percent of all Army officers enter the service through ROTC — making it a crucial entry point into the PME pipeline, one in which untested young officers are most vulnerable to woke ideology and career derailment.
The key reforms below are aimed at the U.S. Army Cadet Command headquartered at Fort Knox, Kentucky, which oversees more than 1,000 Army ROTC units at colleges across America.
- Close ROTC programs at leftist colleges run by woke activists — such as those at UC Berkeley, Columbia University, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison — and prioritize increasing enrollment in conservative states whose leaders are aligned with America First goals. America cannot afford to have its ROTC programs transformed into political indoctrination camps for the radical, anti-American Left.
- Incentivize Air Defense and Artillery positions with commission bonuses and restrict eligible ROTC degrees. Under current rules, Army ROTC cadets can major in any accredited field — including Ethnic Studies, Human Rights, Gender & Women's Studies, Peace & Conflict Studies, and Environmental Studies. None of these will help America win wars. Any major that doesn't achieve the purpose of preparing warfighters has got to go.
- Restore ROTC Cadet Summer Training (CST) standards that keep slipping to accommodate "equity and inclusivity" priorities. Summer training should be tougher, and standards should be exacting — not modest, pass-fail events.
- Ban DEI, CRT, and gender ideology training across all ROTC programs and replace them with mandatory modules on American exceptionalism, constitutional loyalty, and combat ethos. Abolish any affirmative action criteria used in scholarships or commissioning. All selections must be based solely on Order of Merit List (OML) scores, emphasizing physical readiness, leadership potential, and academic performance in STEM and warfighting-relevant fields.
Air University is the U.S. Air Force's professional military education institution, headquartered at Maxwell Air Base in Montgomery, Alabama. Established in 1945, it offers 23 different programs — among them, the Air War College — for eligible enlisted Airmen, officers, officers from allied nations, and select civilians.
Air University's Masters programs are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which encourages DEI in university programs. It is worth noting, however, that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is the only accrediting organization in the nation which has declined to mandate DEI requirements.
Under the Biden administration, Air University adopted aggressive DEI programs and policies, many of which have been rolled back under the Trump administration. For example, the university offered a three-day "Leading Inclusively Virtual Experience" course "to help grow inclusive-minded leaders." Students used virtual reality conversations to engage in "difficult diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) conversations."
That program was led from 2022 to January 2025 by then-Lt. Col. Lisa Stokey, Division Chief of Leaning In Virtual Experience, whose LinkedIn profile boasts of her "Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI)" and "Diversity Training" skills.
National Defense University (NDU) has encouraged joint higher education for all branches of the U.S. military and national defense community since its creation in 1976. Located in Washington, D.C., NDU consists of five colleges and schools: National War College, Joint Forces Staff College, College of International Security Affairs, Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, and College of Information and Cyberspace.
NDU is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which has criticized President Trump's executive order barring wokeness in college accreditation agencies. In 2020, the commission aggressively promoted DEI with "a project to spotlight highly-effective institutional practices that have made a difference in the lives of our students through diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives . . . to fulfill our responsibilities of promoting a more just society."
Beginning with the Obama administration, NDU participated in a UN program to promote "Women, Peace, & Security" (WPS) to ensure "the meaningful participation of women in all decision-making," including "minoritized gender groups (including LGBTQ+)." NDU promoted an annual Women, Peace, and Security Writing Award competition focused on "Women and Conflict Resolution," "Women's Roles in Conflict Prevention," and "National and International Stakeholders' Respective Roles in Setting and Advancing the WPS Agenda."
National War College's 2023–24 academic catalogue included a diversity statement and affinity groups including "Women in National Security" and "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility." From the College of Information and Cyberspace academic catalogue: "Equity, diversity, and inclusion are principles fundamental to our productivity and effectiveness."
NWC is the U.S. Navy's premier PME institution, located in Newport, Rhode Island, with a satellite division at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California. The college offers a Master's degree in Defense and Strategic Studies to Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard officers grades O-3 and above.
Nongovernmental organizations have no place in approving military college curricula. Yet the NWC is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education, which emphasizes diversity goals for both student admissions and staff hiring.
The NWC has pushed DEI since at least 2014, beginning with a new provost hired specifically to meet the Obama administration's "commitment to diversity." In 2022, advisors hired a Chief of Inclusion and Diversity Officer to develop "a comprehensive and strategy equity, diversity and inclusion" program. In 2023, NWC held a conference asserting, "Diversity without a culture of inclusion is not only a hypocritical maneuver but also wasteful and dangerous."
NWC president and Rear Admiral Darryl Walker is a key driver of DEI policies at the college — prior to leading NWC, Walker was Diversity Director for the Naval Air Forces. A number of NWC officials have never served in the Armed Forces, including: Mary Thompson-Jones, Chair of Women in National Security; Sair Yamin, Chair of Women, Peace, and Security; Andrew R. Wilson, Chair of Asia-Pacific Studies; Peter J. Dombrowski, Chair of National Security Economics; Timothy D. Hoyt, Chair of Counterterrorism; and Michael H. Bush, Associate Provost for Academic Studies.
While most of NWC's catalogue focuses on legitimate warfighting topics, the following courses should be removed: Climate Change & National Security (EL 775); Climate Security Around the World (EL 775B); The History of Women in War and Combat: The Distinguished Outsiders (EL 604); Women, Peace, and Security (EL 798); and Women, War, and Peace (EL 820).
NPS, located in Monterey, California, offers advanced degrees and research programs in engineering, cybersecurity, defense analysis, and space systems. Officers from all branches are eligible, as are general Defense Department and certain U.S. government officials.
NPS is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WSCUS). Until recently, WSCUS required universities comply with its DEI standards to obtain accreditation. Although WSCUS has put a "stay" on DEI requirements to comply with President Trump's executive order, that doesn't go far enough — NPS should not seek accreditation from any non-military organization, whatsoever.
In May 2025, NPS president Vice Adm. Ann E. Rondeau (Ret.) finalized an education partnership agreement with CSU Monterey Bay that "directly supports broader university goals around equity, inclusion, and access to opportunity in STEM fields." Rondeau has previously said a "diverse student body" will solve the military's problems.
A number of senior leadership positions are currently held by civilians who have not served in uniform, among them: James Bret Michael, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs; Jomana Amara, Vice Provost for Academic Leadership; Ralucca Gera, Chair of Applied Mathematics; Dr. Gurminder Singh, Chair of Computer Science; Michael E. Freeman, Chair of Defense Analysis; Douglas Fouts, Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Garth Hobson, Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Wendell Nuss, Chair of Meteorology; Peter Chu, Chair of Oceanography; David Alderson, Chair of Operations Research; Kevin Smith, Chair of Physics; and Oleg Yakimenko, Soviet-born Chair of Systems Engineering.
Among courses that should be cut: Anthropology, Media, and War, which teaches "implicit forms of ideology . . . in memes"; Seminar in Stoic Ethics; Russian Film and Fiction; and Politics, Film and Fiction in Latin America, which emphasizes social science over warfighting.
USAWC is the Army's premier professional military education institution, located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It offers a Master of Strategic Studies degree to senior military officers (O-5 and above) in all branches. Programs emphasize land power, leadership, national security strategy, and joint service operations.
Like other PMEs, the USAWC curricula is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, which has aggressively promoted DEI as part of its criteria for accreditation. In 2018 and 2020, the commission submitted amicus briefs defending race-based college admissions, arguing "we too have a voice and responsibility in promoting social justice [and] standing against systemic racism."
Under the Obama and Biden administrations, USAWC promoted DEI studies and research as a national security issue. That changed under the second Trump administration, which has begun a sitewide content review under Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth's order — including removing inappropriate books promoting gender ideology and critical race theory from the war college library.
The USAWC pressroom promoted articles such as "Toward a Racially Inclusive Military" that accused the Armed Forces of "racialized structural inequalities." At least 50 articles and podcast episodes from USAWC's online journal War Room promoting "unconscious bias," feminism, transgenderism, and other woke topics have been scrubbed from the site. USAWC also published research arguing the U.S. Army is "precariously underprepared" for climate change.
Professor of History Ron Granieri has retweeted left-leaning political content, criticized Republican senators on non-military policy, and attacked President Trump on television during the classified documents trial. Other senior faculty with no military experience include: Arzan Tarapore, visiting professor and Stanford University research scholar; Brian Carlson, professor of Indo-Pacific Security Studies; Jake Rinaldi, China Landpower Studies Center researcher; and John Deni, professor of Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational Security Studies.
Help Restore Professional Military Education
Your support funds the investigative journalism and accountability research that exposes ideological overreach in America's military schools and war colleges.