Counterinsurgency and Beyond: Operationalizing the Civilian Surge
Abstract
THE UNITED STATES has been less than effective in employing the instruments of national power in recent conflicts. While the military has been an unparalleled expeditionary warfighter, our diplomatic, information, economic, and governance efforts have failed to fulfill stability operations and reconstruction requirements. Ad hoc military organizations, national-level federal agencies, and contractors have tried to meet the demand, but they are not structured, resourced, or trained to fill the need. Analysts have called for revolutionary changes in the way the United States conducts foreign engagements, but thus far, no practical models have emerged. Policymakers need to eschew established conventional thinking and determine commonly understood, easily articulated, and fundamentally supportable national security and economic strategies using civilian as well as military capabilities. Not only must the United States win in Afghanistan, it must win there in a new way. We need skills found primarily at the state and local levels of government or in the private sector if we are to succeed in post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction. Moreover, although we are in phase IV of Operation Enduring Freedom, we are in phase zero-shaping operations- everywhere else. The United States should institutionalize the idea of phase zero operations and build capacity to execute them in future foreign endeavors. Policymakers must abandon legacy mechanisms impeding progress and harness instruments of power across the whole of government, the whole of industry, the whole of information, and the whole of American resolve.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA536517
Entities
People
- North K. Charles
- Stephen L. Dannen
- Wendul G. Hagler Iii
Organizations
- United States Army Combined Arms Center