Basic Strategic Arts Program

The Basic Strategic Art Program (BSAP) is a specialized academic program taught at the U.S. Army War College. In the late 1990s when the Army created Functional Area 59, the United States Army War College was chosen as the institution to host the program. The first BSAP class was in 2003. FA 59 Officers were used in combat for the first time beginning in 2001 with the onset of the Global War on Terror. Graduates of this program have served in key positions in Iraq, Afghanistan, at all combatant commands, Army Service Component Commands, and at the Pentagon. The program is the qualification course for Officers selected for FA59 (Strategist, formerly Strategic Plans & Policy). It provides an introduction to strategy, art and practice, and establishes a base of the unique skills, knowledge, and attributes required for an Officer's development as a strategist. The course is taught to rigorous academic standards, failure to achieve and maintain these standards is cause for disenrollment from the program and loss of the Functional Area identifier.

An FA59 Lieutenant Colonel serves as the BSAP director and an FA59 Major serves as deputy director. The course employs two full-time instructors to serve as primary educators and mentors and one civilian technician to provide administrative support. The Director of BSAP is responsible for the execution of the program, and is the primary liaison to the Proponent Office at Headquarters, Department of the Army in Washington, DC. The two civilian instructors develop and implement the curriculum, along with the program Director, and an educational technician provides administrative and program support. BSAP draws upon the entire faculty of the War College to support instruction. In addition, the BSAP curriculum makes full use of additional academic and professional opportunities available during the resident and non-resident courses at the U.S. Army War College. BSAP students will sit in seminar with many of the same renowned subject matter experts who lecture for the Advanced Strategic Art Program, the U.S. Army War College resident program, and the other Senior Service Colleges.

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