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Civil Affairs ( CA) is a term used by both the United Nations and by military institutions (such as the U.S. military), but for different purposes in each case.
"Civil Affairs components work at the social, administrative and sub-national political levels to facilitate the countrywide implementation of peacekeeping mandates and to support the population and government in strengthening conditions and structures conducive to sustainable peace."DPKO/DFS Policy Directive on Civil Affairs (April 2008)http://www.peacekeepingbestpractices.unlb.org/pbps/Library/DPKO-DFS%20Policy%20Directive%20on%20Civil%20Affairs.pdfCivil Affairs components are deployed in most peacekeeping missions led by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and are also a feature of many special political missions led by the Department of Political Affairs. Officers are usually deployed at the local level, where they serve as the link between the UN mission, local authorities, and communities. Civil Affairs components work countrywide to strengthen the social and civic conditions necessary to consolidate peace processes and are a core function of multi-dimensional peacekeeping operations. As of mid-2013, there were approximately 700 Civil Affairs Officers in 13 UN Peacekeeping Operations worldwide.
Civil Affairs components perform one or more of three core roles, depending on the UN Security Council mandate given to a particular peacekeeping mission. In each role the work of Civil Affairs intersects with, supports and draws upon the work of a variety of other actors. Depending on the mandate, the three core roles are 1) Cross-mission representation, monitoring and facilitation at the local level; 2) Confidence-building, conflict management and support to reconciliation; and 3) Support to the restoration and extension of state authority.
The development and growth of civil affairs work has been a critical element of the development and growth of multidimensional peace operations. With the end of the cold war and the increase in peace operations required to respond to intrastate conflict, the UN was increasingly asked to tackle complex civilian tasks. These went beyond the limited role of liaising with political actors and the “good offices” work that had characterized civilian peacekeepers until that point. Cedric Thornberry, the first Director of Civil Affairs in a UN mission (UNPROFOR in 1992), described this new broader role as follows:
To fully understand the UN’s meaning of “civil affairs” it is first important to appreciate that most of the missions created between 1989 and 1992, especially, were qualitatively different from those which had preceded. It is not just that most were a lot bigger … they were to fulfil many roles additional to the archetypal ones of the 1947-1988 period. The task of the UN became, not merely to observe, but actively, itself, to bring about peace … In a rapid sequence of major operations – principally in Namibia, Central America and Cambodia – the UN was required not only to make peace, but to conduct nationwide processes of reconstruction and national reconciliation. Their task was, in broad terms, to harmonize or unify deeply divided societies, long racked by war, and to establish democracy where previously there had been tyranny.Cedric Thornberry, ”Civil affairs in the development of UN peacekeeping”, International Peacekeeping, vol. 1, No. 4 (1994), pp. 471– 484.
These key themes of helping to unify divided societies and helping states to exert legitimate authority are central to the continuing role of civil affairs today.
During the 1990s small civil affairs components were included in a number of missions, including those in Cyprus, Tajikistan and Georgia. At the end of that decade, major civil affairs components were deployed to Kosovo and East Timor, to implement the executive mandates that were given to peacekeeping operations at that time. In these cases civil affairs components found themselves mandated to establish effective administrations and to support capacity-building for self-government.
The start of the 2000s saw a surge in the deployment of large civil affairs components to peacekeeping missions. Each one had its own unique focus and contribution to make in implementing peace mandates at the local level, but each was there to strengthen links to ordinary citizens, as well as to support the development of social conditions conducive to peace and provide an overall facilitation role locally.
This institutional framework will need to continue to evolve and develop in response to analysis of the ongoing shifts in the global security environment. The World Bank's World Development Report 2011, for example, found that many countries are caught in a mutually reinforcing cycle of violence and poverty. It also found that more and more people are suffering from violence that is linked to lack of governance and rule of law, rather than to outright war. These changes in the global security environment have resulted in mandates increasingly requiring higher levels of civilian engagement on a wide variety of thematic and cross-cutting issues, ranging from governance, rule of law and institution-building through to early peacebuilding and protection of civilians from threats of violence.
For peacekeeping, of particular note among these emerging issues is the protection of civilians, which has increasingly become a major part of the international discourse around intervention. This was demonstrated in the international dialogue on both Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and Ivory Coast in early 2011 and earlier in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Darfur. Protection of civilians has also increasingly become a specific mandated task, after inclusion in eight UN peacekeeping mandates by the Security Council. It can be expected that civil affairs will be at the forefront of an integrated and coordinated approach to mandate delivery on this issue, in terms of civilian and government engagement on the ground.
Meanwhile, as many peacekeeping operations mandated as part of a surge during the 2000s are starting to draw down their military presence, the UN continues to evolve, transitioning towards an increased focus on the civilian dimension of ”peacebuilding” and its role in avoidance of a return to conflict. Here, civil affairs has a key role to play – within both peacekeeping and political missions – by ensuring that efforts to mitigate conflict drivers and to engage and support local government and communities have meaning on the ground outside the capitals in which the UN is deployed. A continued focus on local presence in these contexts is key if the UN is to ensure that its work genuinely responds to the priorities and concerns of ordinary citizens within post-conflict countries, thereby helping to ensure their consent and to create durable conditions for peace.
These evolving roles, and the range of partners working in related fields and capacities, all create the need – and potential – for increased partnership and cooperation, to ensure that mandate aims progress effectively. Similarly, as these complex and multidimensional trends for the UN response to conflict emerge, the identification and provision of appropriate and available resources to respond to them effectively must also evolve. As indicated in the report of the Senior Advisory Group on Civilian capacity in the aftermath of conflict,(A/65/747—S/2011/85); http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/resources/reports.shtml these challenges will require a nimble, harmonized and, where necessary, specialized civilian response, as well as a focus on partnership across organizations such as the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and regional organizations such as the African Union (AU).
One of the major issues identified in the review of civilian capacities is the need to be able to better identify and support national capacities. As the review states: “The United Nations has seen success in humanitarian operations and peacekeeping, built on a strong partnership with Member States. But the international community has had less success in supporting and enabling the national capacities that are essential for an enduring peace.”19 Civil affairs components have a key role to play in identifying and supporting national capacities, within civil society and local government, including through helping to ensure that voices from the local level are heard in nationally led peacebuilding processes.
Overall, in the evolving environment of international peace and security, a key asset of civil affairs components is their agility and their capacity to respond flexibly to the wide range of demands and expectations within Security Council mandates. One aspect of this flexibility is their ability to direct their focus depending on the availability and presence of other international partners at the local level, particularly those with expertise in highly specialized areas. Civil Affairs can play an important role in mobilizing these partners in places and at times where they are most needed. This is a cost-efficient model, given the prohibitive and unnecessary expense of having a full complement of specialized expertise available in each locality around the country at all times. It also helps to ensure that local-level support is need-driven, rather than simply provided because a particular service or resource happens to be available.
Civil Affairs can be expected to remain at the forefront of the UN response to conflict, and to building the processes, structures, relationships and trust required to assist countries and communities to break the cycle of violence.
In return, local communities and groups have an opportunity through Civil Affairs to access the mission, which they may perceive as distant and militarized. Civil Affairs can be a bridge, which means that groups who previously would not have dared to approach the heavily guarded mission gates and ask for a discussion with the mission field leadership, civilian or military, can now approach the UN as guests rather than supplicants. The mission is inevitably enriched by this kind of dialogue and Civil Affairs Officers are often the best facilitators of it.
In exceptional circumstances, the Security Council has also authorized peacekeeping missions to temporarily assume the administrative and legislative functions of the state through provision of a transitional administration, as was the case in Kosovo and TimorLeste. However, it is important to emphasize the specificity of the circumstances under which these two missions were established and the fact that executive mandates are generally seen as a last resort in situations where a territory is virtually deprived of any functioning state institutions.
All Active Component Army Civil Affairs personnel undergo rigorous assessment and selection, followed by extensive training in foreign languages, advanced survivability skills, and negotiations techniques in order to operate autonomously as a small team, in any kind of environment, to achieve strategic end states. A Civil Affairs Team of 2 to 4 soldiers will often be the only U.S. military personnel in an entire country, working for the U.S. ambassador as well as their military chain of command.
Reserve Component Civil Affairs personnel support the conventional military in post-conflict stabilization.
The fundamental role of Civil Affairs forces is to build networks of formal and informal leaders to accomplish important missions in diplomatically or politically sensitive areas. SOF Civil Affairs operate as reconnaissance elements within the population, performing their core task of Civil Reconnaissance. Civil Information Management, Helping to provide Foreign Humanitarian Assistance, and Nation Assistance. They achieve effects by conducting Civil Engagements, applying knowledge of governance, economics, and politics to affect human behavior in the context of military operations or in support of strategic objectives.
The 95th Civil Affairs Brigade and its five subordinate battalions are all stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which is a rapidly deployable unit that only supports the Army Special Operations Command. Each of the five battalions is regionally aligned to one of the five U.S. combatant commands; SOUTHCOM, CENTCOM, EUCOM, AFRICOM and INDOPACOM. The Civil Affairs soldiers in these units receive extensive language and regional instruction as part of their training pathway and are assigned to the battalion affiliated with the respective region they are trained for. Once these soldiers arrive to their assigned units they receive advanced training in a variety of fields, preparing them for the enhanced level of responsibility that they will have working on small, autonomous teams.
The 83rd Civil Affairs Battalion is one of the few battalions in the Army with a global mission set. Falling under the command of the U.S. Army XVIII Airborne Corps and located at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the Battalion provides support to special operations and conventional military missions in all five combatant commands, as well as diplomatic, interagency, and foreign partner organizations. As Active Component Civil Affairs soldiers, personnel assigned to the Battalion undergo the same rigorous selection and advanced training as those in the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade, and individuals will often rotate between both units.
All active civil affairs battalions are a component of the U.S. special operations forces.
Reserve Civil Affairs units assigned to United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) are task organized in four reserve Civil Affairs Commands (CACOMs) which integrate at the strategic and operational level with theater commands and joint/combined task forces. Civil Affairs brigades comprise these CACOMS and integrate at the corps. At the tactical level, maneuver divisions are augmented by the Civil Affairs battalions. The four CACOMs are the 350th CACOM, the 351st CACOM, the 352nd CACOM, and the 353rd CACOM.
Two other Army Reserve Civil Affairs units are assigned to other theaters of operation. The 322nd Civil Affairs Brigade is based in Hawaii and falls under operational control of United States Army Pacific Command and the 9th Mission Support Command. The 361st Civil Affairs Brigade is based in Germany and falls under operational control of United States Army Europe and the 7th Mission Support Command.
Within the United States Army, reserve civil affairs units are administered through United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne), or USACAPOC(A), a subordinate of U.S. Army Reserve Command. USACAPOC(A) contains Psychological Operations (PO) and Civil Affairs (CA) units, consisting of Army Reserve elements. USACAPOC(A) was founded in 1985. It is headquartered at Fort Bragg.
On 1 October 2006, USACAPOC(A) realigned from the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) to the United States Army Reserve Command (USARC). Training and doctrine relating to USACAPOC(A) is provided by the United States Army John Fitzgerald Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (USAJFKSWCS) at Fort Bragg, NC.
The American Council on Education recommends Course credit be awarded in the lower-division baccalaureate or associate's degree category two semester hours in map-reading, three in public administration, and one in military science for this training. The soldier is awarded the Military Occupational Specialty designation of 38B10. All Active duty enlisted will attend airborne school and language school, while Reservists may attend these courses at a later date through their units.
Maritime Civil Affairs Teams (MCATs) lessen the impact of military operations imposed during peace and periods of declared war, and increase the impact of humanitarian civil assistance (HCA) and contingency operations in support of theater security cooperation plans.
MCA forces provide assistance with the restoration of local infrastructure in the aftermath of military operations, natural and man-made disasters and regional engagement activities in order to achieve shared mutual interests.
In order to maximize its effectiveness, each deployed MCAT is regionally focused and trained with the necessary language skills and cultural awareness. The teams are responsible for streamlining and coordinating the efforts of the Department of Defense, Department of State, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Each Maritime Civil Affairs sailor is responsible for shaping the regional perception of the U.S. and gaining the support of the local populace, preventing it from being influenced by forces of instability, such as terrorism, piracy, crime and natural disaster.
MCASTC has been disestablished.
The British Army first formed CA units in 1943, and by August 1944 there were 3,600 CA personnel in France with the 21st Army Group.
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