The People's Liberation Army (PLA): An Executive Education Course for Analysts and Practitioners

The application deadline for the March 11-13 session is February 21, 2025.

Learn more about the March 11-13, 2025, session.

As part of China’s efforts to build a “world-class military” by 2049, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been rapidly modernized and reorganized under General Secretary Xi Jinping. Through these efforts, the PLA has begun to build a modernized joint force capable of a complex range of operations. It now rivals the U.S. military in key areas, such as conventional ballistic and cruise missile capabilities and the military application of emerging technologies, as well as possesses the world’s largest naval fleet.

To provide analysts the opportunity to engage with these critical issues, NBR is pleased to offer The People’s Liberation Army: An Executive Education Course for Analysts and Practitioners. The course includes three days of interactive seminar-style classes led by world-class experts on the PLA, working lunches with current and retired practitioners, and a scenario-based simulation exercise run by the course’s Senior Mentor. Previous senior mentors have included former director of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s China Strategic Focus Group, Brigadier General Brian Davis (Ret.), former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China, Mr. Chad Sbragia, and NBR Senior Fellow for Chinese Security and former U.S. Army China Foreign Area Officer, Roy Kamphausen.

The course’s broad curriculum covers topics ranging from the PLA’s history and strategic culture to Party-Military Relations and organizational reform to strategic doctrine and service-based analyses, among other themes. Each session is shaped and led by a distinguished expert on the PLA and is tailored to meet the needs of military and civilian practitioners, industry leaders, and research professionals working on China-related security issues.

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