Dear Ltc. Or,

It was a pleasure to meet you, MG Veruv, and the rest of your delegation at the Eisenhower School on Monday, 17 June.  I enjoyed learning about the Israel National Defense College, and discussing the possibility of an April 2020 Eisenhower student visit to Israel.  As a reminder, I lead the Cyber Domain/Advanced Computing Industry Study (the 'Cyber IS')—not one of the three other Eisenhower School industry study groups  that visited Israel in April (C4ISR, EW, and Missile Defense).

Fortunately, I have received tentative approval to arrange a 15-20 September visit to Israel (arriving on Saturday the 14th, and departing on Friday or Saturday the 20th or 21st), to make contacts and develop options for a possible student visit next April (for 19 or 20 people, in all).  I have developed a preliminary list of possible visit locations for September (attached), and would like to seek your opinion of it, and ask you about the best way to proceed.  Although several 'high-interest' visit locations have been highlighted in bold green text, some substitutions are certainly possible, particularly for the proposed industry visits.  I would be the only Cyber IS person visiting in September, if the trip happens.

Several faculty members here who have visited Israel previously have emphasized to me the desirability of having a local sponsor for a trip -- normally, someone in the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD) who has appropriate contacts in industry.  Would you or your associates be able to refer me to the appropriate sponsor (if it is not you)?

Perhaps a little background about our students would be helpful (sorry if I repeat anything you have heard already).  In the Cyber IS, we typically have 17 students who are mid-career U.S. and international military officers (O5-O7), and U.S. government civilians.  All of them have an advanced degree of one sort or another, and sometimes 2-3 have an MBA or a degree related to finance.  The students receive some education in economics, strategy, and leadership during their first semester at Eisenhower, and then (in a course that parallels mine), they learn how to read financial statements and assess firms and industries.  This year, my students did a 'deep dive' analysis on four firms:  Apple, Oracle, Raytheon, and Verizon.  In the Cyber IS, my students studied 21 cyber case studies, visited or hosted representatives of many firms and agencies in the United States and abroad, and wrote about how to address various industry and policy challenges.

One of our main aims in the Master of Science in National Resource Strategy program is to help the students understand strategic business issues, and enhance their knowledge of how to foster the growth and development of key sectors--so that in a time of crisis, we aren't caught flat-footed, and can respond by leveraging industry effectively.  Among our priorities is to understand how to promote innovation in key sectors (and how to remove obstacles that might be impeding progress).  We look closely at the relationships among government, industry, and academic actors in a particular area.  In their future roles, some of our graduates will be in a position to influence policy changes affecting business development, trade, intellectual property protection, supply chain reliability/integrity, and human capital development, etc.  We had them practice providing their recommendations in late May by delivering a formal 3-hour out-brief to eight senior industry and government leaders.  As you know, Col Shlomo Binder (IDF) participated in our program.

For next year's course (January-May 2020), I am currently planning a curriculum around four areas:  (1) cybersecurity and cyberspace operations, (2) artificial intelligence (AI), (3) telecom (esp. 5G technologies), and (4) advanced computing (quantum and neuromorphic).  Last year, we were fortunate to visit or host more than 40 firms, agencies, and institutions in the United States, United Kingdom, Estonia, and Belgium.  In 2020, we will likely visit the Silicon Valley, Texas, and Israel.  All trips are currently in the planning stages.  Israel’s strengths in the areas discussed above highlight the potential benefits of having our students visit firms and agencies in your country.

If I have the chance to visit Israel in September, I would of course seek to build a little rapport with future hosts, gather insights that would help me plan the best curriculum for 2020, and plan a possible student visit in April 2020.  My plan is to rent a vehicle to visit various sites in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, and Be'er Sheva.

Would you or your associates be willing to consider the attached list (and the plan I discussed above), and let me know the best way to proceed?  If needed, I will contact the potential hosts myself, however it seems essential to have an Israeli government sponsor identified (probably someone in the IMOD) to make a visit possible.  I have not yet contacted anyone in the U.S. Embassy there to discuss these plans, but will certainly do so in due course.

Thank you very much for any assistance you can provide!

Best regards,

Col Nichols

ANDREW H. NICHOLS, Colonel, USAF

Assistant Professor, National Security and Industrial Base

Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy 

National Defense University

Eisenhower Hall (Bldg. 59), Room 415

andrew.h.nichols.mil@ndu.edu

Office:  (202) 685-4319