Telling the Civil Affairs Story
In December 2023, in response to a growing consensus on the need for a strategic story and narrative strategy for Civil Affairs professionals to speak with supported commands with one voice about what CA is; what it does; and why and how it is important.
After over a year’s work and in coordination with CA proponent offices, the Association is contributing with a capstone memorandum on “Telling the Civil Affairs Story – A Narrative Strategy for Civil Affairs,” along with an updated strategic communication slide deck (with notes) and a two-sided handout. These are posted here for adaptive use by the CA’s most important storytellers—individual CA professionals posted at those commands.
While of these deliverables are official documents, they are intended to facilitate a more common view of CA so that supported commands and interorganizational partners can better understand, leverage, and integrate this uniquely diverse but widely unknown strategic land force to support a complexity of U.S. and allied strategic and politico-military objectives in any campaign.
Given how narratives evolve from the bottom up more than the top down, CA professionals must play a crucial role in refining and adapting the CA story as much as telling it. As you employ these deliverables and obtain feedback and insights, please your observations and recommendations with us so we can improve or add to them, simply by sending a message to admin@civilaffairsassoc.org. We’ll look to update them at least annually.
The deliverables include: