The Civil Affairs Association has published its report on the annual web-based Symposium on “Building a Global Civil-Military Network.”
Recent events, among them the fall of Afghanistan, suggest critical lessons for building a global civil-military network to strengthen alliances and attract new partners, helping regional commands, interagency bureaus, and embassies deal with challenges like Chinese and illicit network penetration in Latin America and Africa, hybrid warfare on the European periphery, anti-access and area denial in the Indo-Pacific region, and climate-driven disruptions.
Among the observations and findings from the rich discussion involving nearly 500 participants over those three days is how recent operations like Operation Allies Welcome and Operation Allies Refuge have demonstrated the enduring value of how the human capital of a robust civil-military network more than helps bring those operations together quickly and effectively. It helps gain and maintain the access and influence that defines positional advantage in strategic competition, providing a wide and continuous feedback loop to enable more effective unified action and superior political-military and civil-military executive decision-making.
As keynote speaker Major General Darrell J. Guthrie also pointed out, it generates important civil knowledge that must be shared and integrated widely in complex operations.
More than anything, he and many others noted, the consistent presence of CA and other information-related forces at theater, joint, and service commands as well as U.S. embassies helps senior political and miliary leaders gain and maintain situational awareness and understanding. CA’s multilevel civil reconnaissance and civil engagement in forward areas also provides the civil knowledge and regional and cultural competencies needed for long-term success across the entire competition continuum.
Opportunities for CA to contribute abound—in addition to by, with, and through country teams, Security Force Assistance Brigades, National Guard state partners, Foreign Area Officers, allies, commercial enterprises, peacebuilders and humanitarians, etc., with United Nations (UN) field missions as civil-military staff members and UN military observers.
The final version of the Report will appear in Vol. 8 of the 2021-22 Civil Affairs Issue Papers in early 2022. Its findings and recommendations will be discussed and distilled at the online Civil Affairs Roundtable in April 2022.
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