In the Spring of 2007 I was a cadet at a small military school tucked away in the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont. I was much more interested in being anywhere aside from the mandatory “rented crowd” at a military writer’s symposium. I was likely thinking of just about anything other than the topics being discussed. What could I learn from authors discussing topics that bore no relation to my future job as a Platoon Leader? The irony of how naïve I was then is quite comical. Finally, a guest speaker started to discuss his experiences in Iraq. He talked about how his Soldiers used diplomacy, negotiation, and relationships to target threat networks to win over the populace. I was hooked.
Matt Radman is a Civil Affairs Officer currently deployed with 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. Previously he has worked in the 98th Civil Affairs Battalion where he was selected as a 2017 HQDA Strategic Studies Fellow. The opinions written above solely reflect those of the author and do not represent the US Army or the Department of Defense.
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What’s your first thought when you read the above headlines? Each signifies a tangled web of history, culture, politics, and violence. Mitigating this network of chaos requires coordination from multiple actors, synchronization of resources, and shared understanding of small-scale events that can have strategic effects in an inter-connected world.
What if I were to tell you that there is a specialized branch in the U.S. Army whose sole task is to respond to emerging threats like those referenced above? Allow me to introduce the U.S. Army Civil Affairs Regiment.
It Started with a Conversation
Photo retrieved from The Bully Pulpit.
So there I was, back at Norwich University, listening to this speaker at the Colby Military Writer’s Symposium. The more he spoke, the more fascinated I became. I hung on every word as he described a “new” kind of warfare. He outlined how security forces engaged the population in Iraq, won over key leaders, defeated insurgents, and stabilized population centers so jihadists could not recruit more fighters.
To a 19-year-old cadet, working in this field sounded like being a modern-day Lawrence of Arabia. After a brief meeting with the author during his book signing, I decided that come what may in my career, I wanted to become a Civil Affairs Officer. As soon as I received my eligibility to apply, I submitted my packet to the Army Special Operations Forces Board. Five years after that first conversation, I finally received my chance and in the words of Lin Manuel Miranda, I was “not throwing away my shot.”
Talking with a Purpose
“If you’re here to help people you’re in the wrong place…” These were some of the first words to greet me as I stood among the pine scented sandhills of North Carolina. It was a humid November day at Camp Mackall. I and around 80 or so other candidates were receiving our initial cadre orientation to Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection (CAAS). As the cadre informed us that the Peace Corps was taking applications for bleeding heart optimists looking for life fulfillment, I wondered how I’d fare over the next several days being put through a mental and physical wringer.
Ten days later, only 30 candidates remained. We 30 would continue with our Civil Affairs training. [Note: Civil Affairs, Psychological Operations, and Special Forces each run their own separate selections since each branch is looking for qualified candidates to perform unique and specific functions within the Army Special Warfare community]
The Pipeline
The Active Duty Civil Affairs Officer pipeline is fairly straightforward. Aspiring and selected Civil Affairs Officers must first attend a Captain’s Career Course. In 2013, USASOC created the Army Special Operations Forces Captains Career Course (ARSOF CCC) to accelerate the flow of graduating Team Leaders into the three ARSOF Regiments by teaching a three-month standardized curriculum common to all Career Courses, which when combined with an officer’s respective “Q-Course” would make that Officer branch qualified.
Following CCC graduation, you begin the CA Qualification Course. The CAQC is a 43 week process that includes language and cultural training. It also instructs the students how to conduct engagements, negotiations and mediation, and collecting and managing civil information.
The culminating exercise for CAQC is Operation Sluss-Tiller. It tests the ability of Student Civil Affairs Teams to plan and execute Civil Reconnaissance (CR) and Civil Information Management (CIM) in the challenging and complex nation of Pineland. During the final week of CAQC, students are inducted into the Civil Affairs Regiment and Officers officially become a 38A.
Recon in the Human Domain
At the tactical level, operations focus on CA Teams collecting raw data on the civil environment and influencing the local population through action. Instead of leading 100-200 Soldiers as a Company Commander, the Army places you in charge of a Civil Affairs Team (CAT) consisted of a Team Sergeant, a CA NCO, and a medic. Walking out of the JFK Special Warfare Center, wet behind the ears CA Officers lead their CATs in the conduct of two simple tasks. Civil Reconnaissance (also known as Civil Recce or CR) is the first of those tasks.
Civil Recce is the act of identifying vulnerabilities and opportunities in the operational environment that support or hinder a Joint/SOF Commander or Ambassador’s goals. Just like conducting regular reconnaissance, civil recce has deliberate objectives that Civil Affairs teams focus on or around to develop an understanding of the human domain and a deliberate reporting process to sends that information to key stakeholders. The second of those tasks is Civil Engagement (CE).
CA leaders use civil engagements to develop relationships, collaborate, or build capacity to influence partners.But sometimes CE takes the form of delivering humanitarian aid to a population in need; other times it may involve a small infrastructure project to improve the local economy and create jobs. Whether you’re working to build partner capacity in the capital of a South American country or supporting counter terrorist operations in a small mountain village in Afghanistan, as the leader of a Civil Affairs Team (CAT) your role will be to build a network to understand the environment and then shape it to achieve USG national security objectives.
Civil Information Management & Targeting
At the operational-level, CA Officers serve in a variety of roles as they paint the big picture and connect the civil “dots” for Commanders or USG agencies to help drive decisions and resourcing. The Civil Military Operations Center (CMOC) supports and synchronizes the efforts of CA Teams at the company-level. Whether in a JTF, SOF BN, or BCT, a CMOC serves as the civil information hub to analyze team data. They then share it with Unified Action Partners and plan for future contingencies.
With a team of seasoned officers and NCOs, CMOCs augment the planning capabilities at U.S. Embassies, Theater Special Operations Commands (TSOCs) or Combatant Commands (COCOMs) while their teams operate as small elements operating in country (or countries). At the battalion-level, CA elements have their Civil Information Management Section analysis. The Intel and Targeting sections focus on educating and training CA Teams and CMOCs. They provide the tools and mechanisms to collect civil information and share it with their networks.
The final tool in the CA battalion’s operational toolkit is the Civil Affairs Planning Team. The CAPT is a type of advanced CMOC at the battalion-level that helps with country engagement planning and expertise to forward deployed teams.
Outside the CA Battalion
Outside a CA Battalion, seasoned CA Officers serve as SOF BN or BCT S9s (Civil Affairs Staff Officer). In either case, you will advise the Commander. This advice will include how to influence the civil environment, integrate interagency efforts, and employ attached CA assets.
S9s often fill the additional duty of Non-Lethal Targeting Officer and assist the BN or BCT FSO to shape the OE via non-lethal effects. Regardless, you will likely be the lone subject matter expert and play a vital role in framing the civil situation for your Commander. The more you take off his/her plate, the more successful you are as an S9.
Strategic Impact in a Multi-Domain World
David Killcullen’s 2013 bestselling book “Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerilla” posed that populations are on the rise, technology is capable of connecting remote regions together, and military operations will be forced to contend with threats that are urban and networked. Since its publication, we have seen “Little Green Men” seize Crimea and start a war in Ukraine, the remnants of Al Qaeda in Iraq create an actual physical “Caliphate” in destabilized Iraq and Syria, and a former terrorist group become a major political leader in a strategic hub in the Levant.
The commonality across these events is disenfranchised, vulnerable populations ripe for state and non-state actors to gain influence. And to think, leaders taking the right measures through partnership could have avoided all three of these costly situations.
The three pillars of U.S. National Security are diplomacy, development, and defense. The Department of State and USAID have experts in their respective fields. But, Foreign Service Officers don’t have reach, nor the training to enable survival in semi-permissive to denied environments. They need context and clarity when informing the President and National Security Council about events on the ground. With survivability training and an assigned medic, CA teams can extend the reach of U.S. Government.
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Today’s emerging conflicts require quick identification and reporting of critical information to key stakeholders. CA Officers have to deliver the right information to the right parties at the right time. Either way, it can make the difference between a band-aid on a threat or eliminating the instability at its source.
Every challenge I’ve faced as a CA Officer has been different. But all of them included one truth. The actions we take today could mitigate the need to commit a BCT in the future.
Hmm, maybe I am kind of a bleeding heart optimist after all.
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