Deadline: June 30, 2022.
Modern War Institute (MWI) Research Fellowship Program 2022 – United States
Preparing the Army to succeed in future conflict requires drawing on a diverse team of critical and creative thinkers with a variety of viewpoints. With this in mind, the Modern War Institute at West Point invites applications for its research fellows program. We seek fellows committed to pushing the boundaries of policy-relevant research in our themes of human resources, allies and partners, and combined arms warfare.
Research fellows are junior or mid-career professionals who seek an active but temporary relationship with MWI. We seek a diverse pool of talented applicants from a variety of backgrounds: military and national security professionals, analysts, and academics, from the United States as well as its allies and partners. This program is open to individuals of any age and citizenship who are committed to the ideals of the institute and the US Army.
Competitive applicants will have demonstrated an ability to carry out innovative and original research and to advance discussions about the ethical design, generation, support, and application of landpower—as part of a broader, multi-domain system—in contemporary tactical, operational, and strategic environments. They will be able to identify how their specific experiences, research interests, and expected contributions for the coming year align with the MWI mission and research themes.
During the 2022–2023 academic year, MWI’s research program will focus on three themes, broadly defined:
Human Resources
This theme centers on the role people play—as both individuals and as members of a larger organization—in warfighting and broader strategic contexts. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put a spotlight on diverse ways to organize a country’s population for war, with coverage of citizen-soldiers, total defense strategies, soldier morale, and conscription each raising questions about how soldiers from different backgrounds experience war and fight together as a team. This theme also considers how technology, culture, or policy can optimize recruitment and human performance.
Allies and Partners
One of the United States’ great strengths is its ability to attract partners who share its goals. With a national security strategy centered on strategic competition, the success of US policy will increasingly depend on its ability to forge and maintain effective partnerships. From powerful and long-standing alliances like NATO to surrogate operations and proxy war, working with other countries takes many forms. Topics of inquiry for this theme include but are not limited to assuring and reassuring allies, deterrence, security force assistance and arms trade, and interoperability.
Combined Arms Warfare
Combined arms operations remain the most important and the most challenging component of modern military effectiveness in conventional war. Recent conflicts between near-peer adversaries in the Caucasus and in Ukraine have looked much more like the high-intensity conflicts of the early-twentieth century than the last two decades of American-led counterinsurgency. They have also identified new logistical and operational challenges. What have these conflicts revealed about modern combined arms operations? Have technological advances and the emergence of new domains altered how armies mass and maneuver forces? This theme explores these questions and others related to understanding how different elements of landpower work together to create decisive action.
Lastly, we are strongly committed to providing publication and mentorship opportunities for fellows, and we encourage applicants to describe why MWI is the best organization to pursue these efforts.Allies and Partners
Expectations from the Modern War Institute (MWI) Research Fellowship Program 2022
All fellows contribute to MWI’s mission by expanding our ability to conduct rigorous research, amplify expert voices, and offer relevant programming. Fellows must complete at least one of the following activities relevant to the MWI mission:
- Contribute at least one article, review, or report for publication by MWI.
- Serve as a guest lecturer/panelist for a lesson in a relevant event, conference, speaker series, or course at West Point.
In addition, we expect to fellows to participate actively in MWI events, including our War Council series and War Studies Conference, as well as to contribute to MWI-affiliated research by serving as a peer reviewer. Furthermore, MWI fellows will include their MWI affiliation in bylines for publications related to modern war when appropriate.
All positions are unpaid and accepted on a purely voluntary basis. Fellows will serve a one-year term that begins on September 1, 2022. We will consider single-term renewals on a case-by-case basis.
Application Instructions – How To Apply
Applicants should send a CV, a published writing sample, and a one-page cover letter. The cover letter should detail the applicant’s relevant work and research experience, a specific proposed research or program agenda relevant to MWI’s mission and one of this year’s research themes, and how the West Point and US Army communities would benefit from their scholarship or vice versa.
Please send all items in PDF format with “MWI NRF Application” in the subject line to [email protected] no later than 5 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 30, 2022. You may also contact us using this email address if you have any other questions about MWI or its programming.
