The purpose of this paper is to provide a platform for the broader Civil Affairs community to communicate to important opinion leaders in the Executive and Legislative branches, as well as key military commands and institutions what it thinks the way ahead should be for Civil Affairs, utilizing experienced operators rather than just the usual Think Tank approach. Read more...

In this study, Professor Raymond Millen has identified a persistent challenge in U.S. efforts to provide effective security cooperation and capacity building with fragile and failing states – the realm of ministerial advising. From his research and analysis, Professor Millen concludes by recommending the establishment of a professional ministerial corps. Read more...

The activities of private companies in combat operations and complex environments have traditionally drawn minimal attention when compared to their historic presence in such settings yet in the last twenty years the services of these companies have grown to become a seemingly indispensable part of the modern western stabilization arsenal, as well as the subject of much media attention. Read more...

This paper Operationalizing R2P: An Integrated Approach for the Responsibility to Protect discusses the two prominent frameworks for the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), which refers to the obligation of states toward their populations and toward all populations at risk of genocide and other mass atrocity crimes. The 2001 R2P report by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty presented three phases for R2P (prevent, react, rebuild). Subsequently, the United Nations articulated R2P in three pillars (state responsibility to protect, international responsibility to assist a state, and international responsibility to act when a state is unwilling or unable to do so). Read more...

Foreign assistance in policing is not a new phenomenon, but often we fail to consider the past, while planning for the future. Since 1989, the role of the US in several stability operations has increased, such as: Panama (1989), Somalia (1992), Haiti (1994, 2004), Bosnia (1995), Kosovo (1999), Afghanistan (2001), and Iraq (2003). Additionally, US military and civilian organizations have been used to rebuild military and police forces and to provide logistics to international forces (El Salvador, 1991; East Timor, 1999). With the intention of avoiding past mistakes in future stability activities, we have endeavored to capture the lessons from Vietnam policing development. Read more...

Death by a Thousand Cuts explores the application of national reconciliation programs to undermine insurgencies from within and lay the groundwork for stability in the post-conflict period. Dr. Raymond A. Millen presents three case studies—Malaya, South Vietnam, and Iraq—for his examination of national reconciliation programs. Such programs have received little attention after the Vietnam conflict, so this study provides insights of particular interest for US assistance to countries suffering from an insurgency. Read more...

The U.S. Army Peacekeeping Institute (PKI), located at the U.S. Army War College has previously conducted studies of Civil Military Operations (CMO) in U.S. military engagements abroad. Based on comments from various levels of command engaged in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, PKI felt that the one-year mark was the proper time to do an assessment of CMO there. Most participants would be completing tours and have the time and perspective to reflect on their experiences. In late FY 03, PKI was reorganized into the U.S. Army Peace Keeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI). This report is therefore published under the auspices of PKSOI. Read more...

This paper attempts to capture the key features of an asymmetric warfare arena that may provide the military war fighters suitable touchstones in the planning and conduct of a counterinsurgency campaign. This effort besides digging into a plethora of literature also takes into account the experiential base of the author. Read more...