Strategic Human Capital

The Strategic Human Capital Industry Study was launched in January 2020 as a new component of the Industry Study Program of the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy. Strategic Human Capital clearly is a “domain,” not an industry per se. It cuts across all industries and in fact across all organizations, public and private. Human capital is (a) an element and an instrument of national power, (b) a key contributor to public- and private-sector organizational performance, (c) a vital component of industrial and economic performance, (d) an important indicator of strategic competitiveness, and (e) a central element in America’s mobilization posture. Strategic human capital is the aggregation and application of workforce knowledge, skills, abilities, aptitudes, talents, experience, and expertise to strategic aims and concerns. The Strategic Human Capital Industry Study has focused on (a) the various public- and private-sector stakeholders, national and international, who supply, demand, and utilize human resources in the conduct of routine and emergency national security affairs; (b) the national and international conditions and trends that affect and are affected by human resource availability and capabilities in the realm of national security; and (c) the actual supply of and demand for human resources and capabilities across sectors under routine and emergency national security conditions. The overarching aim of the Industry Study has been to assess the importance/impact of human capital in contributing to/determining U.S. and international industrial and economic competitiveness. What has resulted is a reaffirmation that strategic human capital’s strength is its centrality in ensuring national security, contributing to economic vitality and competitiveness, and enabling the effective exercise of national power; conversely, its absence can almost inevitably and invariably produce vulnerability across virtually every societal domain.

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