On April 8, 2022 our US VDF Chad Pillai was invited to Dr. David Varey's 4th year History course,Strategy and Strategists to give a presentation "The Role of the Military Strategist".
Chad provided an overview of the U.S. Army’s Functional Area 59 (Strategy, Plans, and Policy) career field that was established on July 15, 1998 to provide Army senior leaders and HQs with strategic level planning and policy development. He highlighted his career development from a junior officer serving at the tactical level in the Army’s Armored Branch and the key decisions that led to his career change. He provided the students with an overview of the three main focal areas of the career field: (1) institutional (recruiting, training, and equipping the force), (2) operational (employing the force as part of the Army, Joint, and/or Combined HQs), and Applied Strategy (senior advisor to a Commander or teaching strategy). He noted that while the U.S. Army developed a specific career field, there are strategist in the other military branches and among coalition partners. He stressed that being a military strategist is about a mindset of continuously learning and that the RMC cadets could be future Canadian strategist themselves.
Finally, Chad discussed some observations about leadership and stressed in the context of the conflict in Ukraine that people were more important than machines.
Download the Presentation (PDF 1.1mb)
