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 administers Introduction to Economics, the core curriculum’s foundational course for the Critical Thinking outcome and intermediate course for the National Security outcomes. DFEG collaborates with the Political Science, History, Languages and Cultures, Military & Strategic Studies, Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, and Management departments to support the interdisciplinary Foreign Area Studies and Operations Research majors and provide numerous elective courses for other programs.

To prepare leaders for our nation’s Air and Space Forces, DFEG encourages cadets to engage with the world around them, study international 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. Economics majors complete a quantitative program consisting of microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics, followed by field courses including defense economics, game theory, sports economics and labor economics. 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).

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), a Department of the Air Force-level research center focused on research and analysis of strategic human capital policies and issues. Faculty and cadets from DFEG and other disciplines can work with OLEA on research or products that 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 strategic, long term personnel policy challenges.

DFEG faculty are focused on developing warfighters who can apply theoretical academic subjects to military leadership issues and to continue their education in world-class graduate programs. Current faculty support this focus with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests and have earned graduate degrees from world-leading institutions. 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.