NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY can warfighter isbusiness practices to achieve mission success. The creativity and talent of the American warfighter is our greatest enduring strength, and one we do not take for granted. accomplishment asize intellectual g, deepening our nter competitors. en the impact of set to build trust s.  Professional Military Education (PME). PME has stagnated, focused more on the accomplishment of mandatory credit at the expense of lethality and ingenuity. We will emphasize intellectual leadership and military professionalism in the art and science of warfighting, deepening our knowledge of history while embracing new technology and techniques to counter competitors. PME will emphasize independence of action in warfighting concepts to lessen the impact of degraded/lost communications in combat. PME is to be used as a strategic asset to build trust and interoperability across the Joint Forces and with allied and partner forces. decision-making vices, including g of interagency  Talent management. Developing leaders who are competent in national-level decision-making requires broad revision of talent management among the Armed Services, including fellowships, civilian education, and assignments that increase understanding of interagency decision-making processes, as well as alliances and coalitions. ment requires a e new skills and ntists, computer tion, not simply ditional pathways nd devising new versities.  Civilian workforce expertise. A modern, agile, information-advantaged Department requires a motivated, diverse, and highly skilled civilian workforce. We will emphasize new skills and complement our current workforce with information experts, data scientists, computer programmers, and basic science researchers and engineers—to use information, not simply manage it. The Department will also continue to explore streamlined, non-traditional pathways to bring critical skills into service, expanding access to outside expertise, and devising new public-private partnerships to work with small companies, start-ups, and universities. Strengthen Alliances and Attract New Partners ding a durable,Mutually beneficial alliances and partnerships are crucial to our strategy, providing a durable, h has served theasymmetric strategic advantage that no competitor or rival can match. This approach has served the came to our aidUnited States well, in peace and war, for the past 75 years. Our allies and partners came to our aid tary engagementafter the terrorist attacks on 9/11, and have contributed to every major U.S.-led military engagement and maintainingsince. Every day, our allies and partners join us in defending freedom, deterring war, and maintaining the rules which underwrite a free and open international order. or the long-termBy working together with allies and partners we amass the greatest possible strength for the long-term aggression andadvancement of our interests, maintaining favorable balances of power that deter aggression and are responsibilitysupport the stability that generates economic growth. When we pool resources and share responsibility partners providefor our common defense, our security burden becomes lighter. Our allies and partners provide elationships, andcomplementary capabilities and forces along with unique perspectives, regional relationships, and tions. Allies andinformation that improve our understanding of the environment and expand our options. Allies and logistics systempartners also provide access to critical regions, supporting a widespread basing and logistics system that underpins the Department’s global reach. work capable ofWe will strengthen and evolve our alliances and partnerships into an extended network capable of focus on threedeterring or decisively acting to meet the shared challenges of our time. We will focus on three elements for achieving a capable alliance and partnership network: 8 8