Defense Language and National Security Education Office

**About DLNSEO** DLNSEO provides strategic direction, supports policy development, and provides programmatic oversight to the Military Departments, Defense Agencies, and the Combatant Commands on present and future requirements related to language, regional expertise, and culture; and manages a portfolio of programs that provide language support to the Department. Through policy and programs, DLNSEO builds and sustains a combination of language, regional, and cultural capabilities to meet current, projected, and surge needs, and creates a workforce pipeline that supports U.S. national security needs for the future. As the focal point for DoD Language, Regional Expertise, and Culture, DLNSEO provides OSD-level guidance in the areas of language and culture training, testing, and curriculum development. It develops, recommends, and monitors policies for language, regional, and culture capabilities related to the accession, management, and utilization of members of the Armed Forces and DoD civilian employees. DLNSEO supports the DoD mission of building partner capacity through innovative concepts designed to expand Defense foreign language, regional, and cultural skills and capabilities, and through English language training to support heritage recruiting. The office’s vital investment in strategic partnerships with the U.S. education community ensures a flow of highly qualified, language proficient candidates into the federal sector. Through the National Security Education Program, DLNSEO efforts also support language studies among U.S. undergraduate and graduate students who are committed to federal service in national security through nationally recognized Boren Scholarships and Fellowships, and also expand opportunities to achieve professional level proficiency in critical languages through the Language Flagship Program. DLNSEO’s support of the National Language Service Corps provides rapidly accessible, short-term professional level language services to DoD and government agencies’ immediate surge or training requirements and national emergencies. ****Mission**** The Defense Language and National Security Education Office leads the nation in recruiting, training, sustaining, and enhancing language and culture capabilities to ensure national security and defense readiness by: - Building a highly-qualified pool of U.S. citizens with foreign language and international expertise committed to public service through **programs** and policies, - Leading the Department’s strategic **policy** planning regarding foreign language, culture, and regional expertise for Department of Defense personnel, - Providing programmatic **oversight** of high-value national security and Defense training and education initiatives, and - Ensuring national and Departmental **governance** through the National Security Education Board and the Defense Language Steering Committee, as well as other organizational and professional bodies. ****Priorities**** DLNSEO supports key strategies and initiatives to address the challenges of national foreign language and culture preparedness. These key investment areas include: - **Building a Talent Pipeline** - Working with schools, universities, and federal training institutions to build the capabilities of our nation’s citizens to become and to remain skilled in critical languages, - **Strengthening Workforce Readiness** - Providing a ready pool of U.S. citizens, civilian and military, who possess language and culture expertise critical for public service, and sustaining these skills, - **Improving Testing and Assessment** - Developing proficiency metrics and tools to validate the language and culture expertise of DoD personnel and our nation’s citizenry, - **Creating Surge Capability** - Accessing and deploying personnel with language and culture expertise necessary for immediate needs, - **Enhancing Regional Alignment** - Ensuring that language and culture policies and programs support the specific regional needs of the 21st century Total Force, and - **Leveraging Technology** - Employing cutting edge technologies to create effective blended-learning opportunities for language training and maintenance, and cultural training.