About Us

The Department of Economics and Geosciences (DFEG) at the U.S. Air Force Academy empowers leaders with skills and perspective to assess, understand, and influence the world around them.

DFEG directly manages the Economics and Geospatial Science degree programs, and collaborates with the Political Science, History, Foreign Language, Military & Strategic Studies, Political Science, Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, and Management departments to deliver additional academic programs, including Foreign Area Studies and Operations Research.

To prepare leaders for our nation’s Air and Space Forces, DFEG encourages cadets to engage with the world around them, study diverse cultures and organizations, physical or institutional landscapes, economic and geographic relationships, and specialize in state-of-the-art economic or geospatial data processing tools and techniques.

Our demanding and flexible curriculum consists of rigorous foundational classes with a variety of optional foci within each major. Geospatial Science majors may specialize in key subfields including physical, human, and regional geography, or techniques such as digital image processing and geographic information systems (GIS). After foundational courses including rigorous two-course sequences in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics, Economics majors broaden their studies through a menu of field courses, including game theory, sports and labor economics, development and conflict, and money and banking.

Graduates from DFEG use the scientific method to:

• Formulate questions and analyze problems
• Consider issues within a scientific framework
• Collect and analyze data to test hypotheses, recognize and interpret patterns and trends, and evaluate arguments
• Effectively communicate essential concepts and defend their interpretations

Current Geospatial Science majors may also pursue a Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Certificate through a program constructed in coordination with the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF).

DFEG also hosts the Office of Labor and Economic Analysis (OLEA), which is dedicated to providing labor economic analysis with the rigor necessary to define, develop, shape, sustain, and deliver an Air Force and Space Force workforce with efficiency. Faculty and cadets from DFEG and other disciplines create products to advise senior leaders responsible for managing the Department of the Air Force’s human capital portfolio while developing skills necessary for future Air Force and Space Force leaders to address over-the-horizon personnel policy challenges.

DFEG faculty possess a diverse set of backgrounds, interests and skills. With a roughly 50%/50% split between military and civilian instructors, DFEG excels in preparing cadets to apply theoretical academic subjects to military leadership issues and to continue their education in world-class graduate programs. Current faculty earned graduate degrees from world-leading institutions, including: Princeton, Georgetown, Cornell, Purdue, and others. Previous graduates from DFEG include multiple National Scholarship recipients, and many have gone on to outstanding institutions, such as Oxford University, Harvard, Stanford, and MIT to complete graduate studies.