Governing Academic Education and Research in the Military in the Context of University Reforms

Abstract

This chapter elaborates on the processes of institutionalisation and governance of academic education and research at the Faculty of Military Studies (FMS) at the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA). The need for academic officers’ education to meet present day professional requirements is generally acknowledged, but questions of how to best govern academic education and research within a military organization remain under debate. The principle of academic freedom as a pre-condition for academic education and research is crucial to this debate, because it implies a level of autonomy of academics and students that is not self-evident in a military structure. Nevertheless, “civil” universities also need to guarantee academic freedom in tension with other principles that come with the organization, finance and societal demands of scholarship. Universities have struggled – and still struggle – to find a good balance between academic autonomy and its governance too. As a result universities have gone through different stages of governance reform. Situating the institutional development of the FMS in the context of university reform enables us to see parallels and differences that may serve as references for future change in the FMS governance structure. It may help to reposition the FMS more self-consciously as a small scale academic community in both a military and broader social context.