sof jumping out of plane

Strategic Partnership Overview

Prepared for NATO and Partner-Nation Special Operations Forces

Norwich University is America's oldest private military college and the birthplace of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), the U.S. military's principal university-based officer development and commissioning program. For over two centuries, Norwich has educated officers, civil servants, and security professionals. Today it partners with allied academic and defense institutions around the world on professional military education, applied research, and executive education, working as an academic peer rather than a contractor.

WHY NOW

  • The contemporary security environment requires military leaders who can operate across conventional, irregular, hybrid, cyber, cognitive, and emerging technology domains. NATO and partner-nation Special Operations Forces need education that keeps pace with these challenges while remaining relevant to operational demands.
  • Norwich University offers a flexible academic partnership model that can complement a partner nation's existing professional military education, leader development, and workforce requirements without imposing a one-size-fits-all solution.
  • The opportunity is to connect accredited academic programs, focused certificates, applied research, and experiential learning in ways that strengthen strategic thinking, interoperability, resilience, and readiness across the SOF community.
  • Any collaboration would be academic, unclassified, and non-operational. Norwich can support curriculum, research, faculty exchange, professional military education, and leader development while allowing each partner nation to determine the scope and structure that best fits its own authorities, priorities, and requirements.

WHERE NORWICH FITS: ACADEMIC, PME & EXPERIENTIAL CAPABILITIES

  • Norwich's Bachelor of Science in Strategic Studies and Defense Analysis was built with the Special Operations Forces community in mind. Open to international SOF professionals, the undergraduate program provides an academic pathway that connects strategic thinking, security studies, leadership, and the operational experience of military professionals.
  • A broader graduate portfolio supports defense and security professionals across multiple disciplines, including strategic studies, defense policy, international relations, diplomacy, military history, global affairs, cybersecurity, intelligence, and national security.
  • Experiential learning is a central part of the Norwich model. Strategic Leadership and Hybrid Warfare offerings move beyond classroom theory by placing students in applied environments where they must assess complex problems, make decisions, collaborate, and translate academic concepts into practice.
  • The Hybrid Warfare graduate experience combines online study with an international experiential learning component, demonstrating how Norwich can integrate academic learning, applied planning, and live decision-making without requiring students to spend an extended period away from their organizations.
  • Norwich can also provide focused education through the Information Warfare Certificate, the Offensive Cyber Operations Certificate — the first of its kind — and an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Certificate, giving partners options to build targeted capability in rapidly evolving areas of strategic competition.
  • The Peace & War Center (PAWC) provides access to international scholars, policy dialogue, research, and convening platforms such as the annual Peace & War Summit and the Journal of Peace and War Studies.
  • Norwich's Cyber Fusion Center, Center for Cybersecurity and Forensics Education and Research, and Center for Global Resilience & Security provide additional capacity for applied research, simulation, workforce development, resilience, critical infrastructure, cyber, AI, and emerging technology initiatives.
cyber center

HOW WE DELIVER

  • Norwich runs more than 50 online degree and certificate programs, many built around focused 11-week courses rather than a traditional semester.
  • Programs can combine online education with short-duration experiential learning, international immersion, simulations, exercises, and other applied components designed around the needs of working military professionals.
  • Beyond full degrees, Norwich can build closed or sponsored cohorts, individual courses, stackable certificates, non-credit executive education, faculty exchanges, and customized experiential learning, scaled to the partner's mission, workforce, and professional military education requirements.

RECOGNITION & INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY

  • Norwich was the first U.S. institution to host the International Symposium of Military Academies (ISOMA) in 2021, under the International Association of Military Academies. Delegations from roughly 40 nations attended.
  • Norwich was recognized by the Council of College and Military Educators (CCME) with its 2026 Institution Award, recognizing the University's commitment to serving military-connected students and advancing military education.
  • Norwich cadets and faculty participate in international academic and security forums that create opportunities for professional exchange, comparative learning, and enduring relationships among military and civilian institutions.
  • Norwich maintains a multi-year partnership with Seerist on its AI-driven risk intelligence platform; Norwich students won the first Seerist Intellithon competition in 2025.
  • The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation has accredited Norwich's Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Certificate Program through 2030.
  • Norwich has been an NSA-designated National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense since 2001.
  • Norwich maintains formal defense-education relationships that include NATO's Defense Education Enhancement Programme, a U.S. Cyber Command educational partnership, and memoranda of understanding with the Army Cyber Center of Excellence and the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.
  • Norwich students and faculty regularly participate in national and international security competitions, research initiatives, conferences, and applied learning events.

WE'VE DONE THIS BEFORE

  • Norwich works with Helmut Schmidt University / University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg through the International Security Fellows Program and HSU's Democratic Resilience Center, providing a model for sustained military-academic collaboration.
  • Norwich is eligible to participate in Erasmus+ international mobility through agreements with qualified European partner institutions and continues to develop opportunities with European partners.
  • Norwich holds international agreements with military academies and universities across Europe and maintains a growing network of academic and defense partnerships that can support faculty exchange, student mobility, shared curriculum, and collaborative research.
  • Association of the United States Army (AUSA): Norwich maintains a longstanding relationship with AUSA and in 2025 received national recognition as AUSA's Top National Partner, reflecting sustained engagement with the Army community and support for professional education and leader development.
  • Global SOF Foundation: Norwich works with the Global SOF Foundation to expand educational opportunities for the international SOF community, including scholarship pathways that connect SOF professionals with Norwich academic programs.
  • Reserve Organization of America (ROA): Norwich collaborates with ROA and international reserve organizations, including the Verband der Reservisten der Deutschen Bundeswehr (VdRBw), creating opportunities for transatlantic professional exchange, dialogue, and education.

Taken together, these relationships demonstrate how Norwich approaches international partnerships: shared curriculum, faculty and student exchange, experiential learning, applied research, and sustained professional relationships rather than a one-time engagement.

WHAT WE'RE PROPOSING

  • Establish a pathway toward a Memorandum of Understanding or other appropriate partnership framework, providing a foundation for sustained academic collaboration when both institutions determine there is mutual value.
  • Begin with a scoping conversation between Norwich University and partner education or SOF leadership to identify shared priorities, capability gaps, and areas where academic support can add value.
  • Identify near-term opportunities for partner officers, NCOs, faculty, or students to participate in Norwich conferences, symposia, experiential learning events, executive education, or selected academic offerings.
  • Explore participation in Strategic Leadership, Hybrid Warfare, and other experiential or applied learning experiences that can connect academic study to contemporary operational and strategic challenges.
  • Determine whether a degree pathway, closed cohort, individual course, or focused certificate, including Information Warfare, Offensive Cyber Operations, or Artificial Intelligence, best supports the partner's education and workforce objectives.
     

POINT OF CONTACT

William F. Lyons Jr., '90, JD, Colonel (Retired), US Army Reserve
Vice President for Distance Education
wlyons@norwich.edu  
+1 (802) 485-2604 office