Campus

Home / Campus

Campus Overview

The Inter-American Defense College (IADC) is located on the Fort Lesley J. McNair Army Post in Washington, D.C. The campus currently includes four facilities. The main building, #52, contains executive offices, the Salon de Actos ceremony room, an auditorium, student breakout rooms, and staff office space. The modern Academic Auditorium is the principle feature in building #50, which also contains a multipurpose Ward Room, student break areas, and staff offices for the Administration, Personnel and Registrar departments. Building #54 provides office space and small conference rooms for the Studies, Faculty, Interpreters and the Institutional Effectiveness departments. Building #56 is the current home to the IADC’s Publications and Research Division.

Salón de Actos hallway

Salón de Actos is the IADC's formal ceremonial room. The hallway contains photos of past and present IADC directors and vice directors.

The Cafe

The cafe is a break area for staff and students.

Academic Auditorium

The primary lecture hall for IADC students

The Ward Room

Multipurpose room used for ceremonies, shared meals and meetings. The Ward room also contains portraits and busts of a variety of national heroes from nations of the Americas.

Salón de Actos

Salón de Actos is the IADC's formal ceremonial room. It contains flags of all 34 active OAS member nations.

Ceremonial auditorium

The ceremonial auditorium was the primary student lecture hall until 2015. It is currently used as an expansion and ceremonial space.

Previous slide

Next slide

About Fort Lesley J. McNair Army Post

Fort Lesley J. McNair is a United States Army post located on the tip of Greenleaf Point, and faces both the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. Originally named “Washington Arsenal,” the fort has been an army post for more than 200 years. The fort was named after General Lesley J. McNair, who was killed in action by friendly fire in Normandy, France during World War II. The fort is currently part of the Joint Base Myer-Henderson hall, the headquarters of the Army’s Military District of Washington, and serves as home to the National Defense University, as well as the official residence of the Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army. Major Walter Reed founded a general hospital on the post from 1898-1909, which was the predecessor to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he researched malaria, and discovered the cause of yellow fever. This building is now the IADCs studies building.

Panoramic View of Fort McNair

Roosevelt Hall, at the National Defense University

Secondary Security Entrance of Fort McNair

Building 54 - Studies

IADC building - Front

IADC building - Back

Building 54 - Studies

Previous slide

Next slide

Our Community

The college is unique in the Western Hemisphere in that the faculty, staff and body are international. Broad international participation provides an exceptional opportunity for the free exchange of ideas and forms a foundation for better inter-American understanding. In addition, there is no college tuition for participating in the master’s degree program. However, the sponsoring government is responsible for living, and travel expenses of their respective student during the yearlong course.

To develop an educational environment that maximizes each student’s perspective and experience, the IADC strives to maximize diversity in the student body. Our student body represents each service of the armed forces, national police, local police, legislators, as well as representatives of various ministries from over 20 member nations of the OAS. We seek to diversify its student body to emulate the values of the OAS.

Our program is taught in 4 languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French).

Demographics

The IADC prides itself on having students from countries with different political, social, and economic viewpoints to capture the dynamics more fully within the hemisphere. This year welcomes the reemergence of students from Guyana. Conversely, Canada has not sent a student this year due to the COVID-19 situation. Nevertheless, the College sustained a presence from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, United States and Venezuela.

IADC spirit team

Started as an NCO club team which has evolved into a College-wide social club that promotes esprit de corps. The team creates camaraderie amongst staff, students and their families. Its motto: “Strengthen the bonds”, amongst members of the College. The volunteer members of the 2021-2022 Spirit Team hail from several countries such as Peru, Mexico, France, USA, and Ecuador.

This diverse team is a rich mix of civilian-military members from all armed forces, ranks and backgrounds. The Spirit Team has implemented many initiatives like the Running, and Cycling Clubs that meet throughout the year. Recently, we have organized memorable events such as the 9/11 Never Forget step challenge, the Halloween celebration, various multi-sport, multi-team challenges like the Turkey Trot, Easter Dash, and #YoTengoSpirit.