The United States today lacks adequate civilian capacity to conduct complex operations—those that require close civil-military planning and cooperation in the field, such as stabilization and reconstruction, humanitarian and disaster relief, and irregular warfare and counterinsurgency.

Partial solutions to building such capacity have been offered in studies, directives, and statutes, but there has been no comprehensive review of all elements of this national need.

This book is intended to fill that gap. Its main conclusion is that current efforts to build a civilian response capacity for complex operations are unfinished and that the administration of President Barack Obama needs to dedicate additional attention and resources to complete the task.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The United States today manifestly lacks adequate civilian capacity to conduct complex operations—those operations that require close civil-military planning and cooperation in the field. Examples of complex operations abound and include operations for stabilization and reconstruction, humanitarian and disaster relief, and irregular warfare and counterinsurgency.

Troubled operations in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and New Orleans underscore that point. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates both focused attention on this need and transferred defense dollars into civilian programs. The 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review dedicated a chapter to “building partner capacity.” At least two dozen recent studies document aspects of the civilian capacity problem and recommend remedies.

Various directives and statutes have been issued in the past few years that begin to provide partial solutions. And yet there has been no comprehensive review of all elements of this national need. This book is intended to fill that gap. Its main conclusion is that current efforts to build a civilian response capacity for complex operations are unfinished and that the Obama administration needs to dedicate additional attention and resources to complete the task. ...

Visit Civilian Surge: Key to Complex Operations Download Page

You can download Civilian Surge: Key to Complex Operations in PDF format.

Edited by Hans Binnendijk and Patrick M. Cronin
Published for the Center for Technology and National Security Policy
by National Defense University Press
Washington, D.C.
2009

THIS BOOK
We have titled this book Civilian Surge to convey the idea that a significant injection of the civilian expertise that resides in agencies other than DOD is critical to the success of complex operations.

The title is not intended to convey the idea that the need for this civilian capacity is short term. In fact, a sustainable capacity is required. The book was written by a team of experienced analysts drawn primarily from National Defense University.

Chapters were prepared under the general direction of the editors. While there is some duplicate and occasionally contradictory advice, compelling findings and recommendations emerge. Each chapter concludes with a set of findings, the most important of which are summarized below.

Comments (0)

Name

Email

Comment

smaller | bigger

Add Comment