defenceWebThe 2024 Security and Defence Studies Programme (SDSP) is up and running at the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) College in Thaba Tshwane.
This year’s programme, previously the Executive National Security Programme (ENSP), is number 10 since the name change.
Enrolment for this year is 33 from what the SA Soldier component of Defence Corporate Communication terms “diverse branches of the military” as well as “international students”.
The programme sees students, called “participants” by Defence Corporate Communication, going deeper into “the ever-evolving nature of global threats”. Strategic studies, military history and cutting-edge technologies, among others, will come under the microscope, enabling and equipping students with the knowledge and skills required to navigate complex security landscapes.
In his opening address to the class of 2024 at Defence College ON 24 January, Department of Defence (DoD) Human Resources Division Chief, Vice Admiral Asiel Kubu, stressed the “critical role of education in shaping military leaders capable of addressing contemporary security challenges”.
SDSP Class 10 ends in November after 44 weeks of hard brain work, both individually and in groups working on assignments, with – probably – visits to SANDF facilities and bases for a more hands-on experience with the nuts and bolts of the four services. In the ENSP years, students visited international military and defence institutes of higher learning along with military bases and units.
Ahead of the first SDSP in 2015, defenceWeb was informed the then new programme consisted of nine modules, presented over a timeframe more than double its predecessor ENSP. Modules then on the curriculum included national security and strategy in the contemporary world; international conflict management and peace missions; conflict in Africa since the 1960s; the impact of global trends on African security; strategic management studies; research methodology as well as a research reports and strategic exercises.
Defence College, which this year marks its 52nd anniversary, was home to the then Joint Staff Course between 1973 and 1999. Following approval of the 1998 Defence Review, development of the ENSP saw it taking in students for the first time in 2000. All told, 30 ENSP were presented with the final one ending in December 2014.
