The CDEC was established on 1 July 2016, following the merger of the Forces Employment Doctrine Center (CDEF) and the College for Army Higher Education (CESAT). Located at the École Militaire, the CDEC is a decentralized Army Staff institution under the command of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff. As the reference point for doctrine on Army employment, the CDEC provides advanced Army military education and acts as a vehicle for outreach. Its end goal is to fuel military thinking with a view to improving Land Forces operational effectiveness.

The 3 missions of the CDEC

1\ ANTICIPATING EMPLOYMENT, PROVIDING A DOCTRINAL FRAMEWORK tailored to land forces’ current and future commitments

• develop and ensure the overall coherence of doctrine on Land Force employment as part of the doctrinal community network, in particular the Research and Forward Planning departments (DEP) of various commands and agencies of the Army;
• guarantee the Army’s doctrinal interoperability with that of our allies ;
• coordinate the Army Lessons Learned (LL) function;
• ensure the degree of expertise of the mission command warfighting function;
• steer and conduct prospective studies and research works to bolster doctrine and tactical anticipation;
• fulfill a monitoring and anticipation role and ensure its action is taken onboard right across all commands.

2 \ PROVIDING TRAINING to the army decision-makers of tomorrow

• provide advanced Army military education to prepare future active-duty and reserve military leaders to take up high-level command or executive positions that require advanced scientific or technical skills;
• teach the fundamentals of staff work as part of staff training for young captains prior to TCUE (combined arms qualification level one - QIA1) - and post-TCUE (combined arms qualification level two - QIA2) - and the Junior Staff diploma - DEM), training in staff techniques for non-commissioned officers; and the diploma for suitability for field-grade officer positions (EEM);
• training active-duty officers reaching the advanced level of Army military education (EMS2) to take up high-level combined arms command responsibilities in operation or in organic domains (EdG-T);
• training reserve NCOs and officers for staff positions up to the advanced level of Army reserve military education (ESORSEM);
• prepare the officers reaching the advanced level of Army military education (EMS1 or 2) in scientific or technical military studies (EMSST).

3 \ PROMOTING MILITARY THINKING

• put together, translate, publish and disseminate CDEC publications;
• develop, implement and support the assembly of outreach tools for an audience of decision-makers and influencers;
• produce and disseminate the master messages to the internal relay points of the Army