From 21–23 January 2024, the NESA Center Professional Military Education (PME) Team enabled the delivery of three subject matter expert (SME) lectures to students and faculty at the Royal Jordanian National Defense College (RJNDC) outside Amman, Jordan.

Over the course of three days, students at the RJNDC attended a series of seminars and lectures aimed at addressing topics of interest in the Masters’ program curricula. The presentations included Public Diplomacy: The Benghazi Case Study and Crisis Messaging, by Dr. Vivian Walker, Executive Director of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University; China, the USA, and Great Power Competition in the Middle East, by Prof. James Turner, Associate Professor at the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy at the National Defense University; and Cybersecurity for Policy Managers, by Tom Wingfield, Senior International/Defense Researcher at the RAND Corporation. All SME lecturers were identified and invited by the NESA Center.

Student participation included Jordanian officers and civilians and international students from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America. The RJNDC provides PME opportunities for armed forces members, as well as personnel from various ministries, including the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Communication and Information, Ministry of Education, and the Public Security Directorate.

From the left: LTC Mahmoud Almarzouq, Christopher Muller, Associate Dean Charles Marks, BG Emad Btoush, Prof. Richard Wiersema, COL Mohamed Mheidat, BG (ret.) Amjad Alkhasawneh.

In addition to the SME lecture series, the NESA Center PME Team (Associate Dean Charles Marks, Prof. Richard Wiersema, and Program Manager of Outreach & Engagement Christopher Muller) along with Dr. Vivian Walker and Prof. James Turner, met with the RJNDC Academic Director and select faculty to discuss the integration of public diplomacy and strategic messaging topics into the preexisting defense course curriculum.

These activities continue the longstanding relationship and honor the existing Memorandum of Understanding between the NESA Center and the RJNDC. Read about the 2023 Strategic Leadership Seminar held 21–30 August 2023.

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