The CMHSS maintains links with many different international institutions and staff provide lectures, seminars and workshops at these on a regular basis. Our major role, however, is with the Irish Defence Forces.
The CMHSS has for many years played an important role providing accredited academic courses for Irish officers and officer cadets at the Military College within the Defence Forces Training Centre. There we work in close partnership with the military staff to ensure that students receive the best possible education to prepare them for their role defending national interests and supporting international security in a environment likely to be characterised by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. To equip them for this, and to support our students in the development of their skills as leaders and managers, the CMHSS strives to provide a transformational learning experience for the our students, inculcating in them a spirit of learning and enquiry through a critically reflexive perspective. We adopt a student centred-approach, employing collaborative and participative teaching and assessment practices, which promotes peer-to-peer learning and allows for the questioning of ‘taken for granted’ assumptions and the identification of competing discourses of knowledge.
The Diploma in Leadership, Management and Defence Studies (Dip LMDS)
This diploma course is run in partnership with the Cadet School and is embedded within the wider Cadet Course, a 17 month programme of training and education for officer cadets. Successful graduates of the Cadet Course are commissioned into the Defence Forces as either Lieutenants or Second Lieutenants and receive the Diploma in Leadership Management and Defence Studies from Maynooth. The diploma includes modules focused on subjects including Politics, Social Studies, History (including military history), Economics and Accounting, and Defence Studies. The latter includes a focus on strategy, security and also on the impact of war and on the social and ethical responsibilities of those who bear arms. The aim is to support the intellectual development of the Cadets and to provide them with a foundation of knowledge and skills of relevance to them in their future careers.
The programme is integrated into, and supportive of, the wider programme of education provided by the Cadet School, with whom the CMHSS work in partnership. The foundation provided by this course is built upon in later career programmes undertaken by Defence Forces officers (see below).
The Higher Diploma in Leadership, Defence and Contemporary Security (HDip LDCS)
The HDip LDCS is a 60 ECTS Level 8 higher diploma qualification embedded within the Land Command and Staff Course (LCSC). The LCSC is a residential course for Army and Air Corps officers of Captain (or equivalent) rank, designed to prepare them to lead, command and make timely, innovative and ethical decisions in rapidly changing and uncertain operating environments at the tactical level at home and overseas. The course is taught at the Officer Training Wing of the Infantry School, one of the schools of the Irish Defence Forces Military College. Captains must complete the LCSC in order to qualify to enter the competition for promotion to the rank of Commandant in the Defence Forces. During the course, student officers study to develop their professional military education and to enhance their capabilities as leaders. As part of this process they learn to use appropriate conceptual and theoretical frameworks to analyse military campaigns, strategic issues and contemporary security challenges and present their findings in a professional manner orally and in writing. Staff from the CMHSS are embedded in the school and play a central role in the development and delivery of this instruction, working in partnership with the military staff.
The MA in Leadership, Management and Defence Studies (MA LMDS)
The MA LMDS is a 90 ECTS credit level 9 postgraduate qualification, built into the Irish Defence Forces Joint Command and Staff Course (JCSC), taught at the Command and Staff School at the Military College. The CMHSS maintains a presence in the school, with dedicated academic staff embedded there and working in partnership with the military staff to ensure that the MA and JCSC meet and surpass all international benchmarks for excellence. The Command and Staff School focuses on the development of senior leaders who can apply critical thought processes and rational decision-making skills to problem solving within complex operating environments. The JCSC is a nine-month residential course that aims to develop the professional knowledge and understanding of its students, in order to prepare them to fulfil future command and staff appointments at Battalion, Brigade and higher formation levels both in Ireland and overseas on international assignments. The School has been at the forefront in developing an innovative educational partnership with Maynooth University for more than twenty years and the relationship that has evolved is widely recognised as representing a model of its kind. The very high quality of the work produced by students undertaking this course is reflected in the publication of many examples of their thesis work in the Journal of Military History and Defence Studies.
The Irish Naval Service
For over a decade the CMHSS has provided a range of short courses on history, strategy and defence studies to Naval Service Cadets, who visit Maynooth at stages over the course of their training. Here they work with some of the leading experts within the field, and build their knowledge of strategy, security and of maritime strategy and naval policy.