Measuring Success in the Human Domain: Reflections from the Civil Affairs Force

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Measuring Success in the Human Domain: Reflections from the Civil Affairs Force

A. L. Gookins / J. S. Berger

Although the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Special Operations) (Airborne) has deployed worldwide to combat violent extremism and counter strategic competitors since 2006, it does not have a clear process to measure the effectiveness of tactical-level Civil Affairs Operations (CAO). A lack of measures of effectiveness (MOE) for CAO is due to several basic challenges: 1) Lack of a Civil Affairs doctrinal foundation for MOEs; 2) lack of clear mission statements for deploying teams to help formulate MOEs; 3)lack of effective internal and external Civil Affairs communications to standardize MOEs; and 4) lack of adequate personnel, training, funding, and analytic tools for Civil Affairs Teams (CAT) to monitor and evaluate MOEs. Based on 18 interviews with Civil Affairs practitioners - from senior Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) to field grade officers - this thesis examines the barriers that CATs face in developing and implementing MOEs during mission planning and execution. This thesis also provides recommendations for CATs and the Civil Affairs leadership to address and overcome these barriers by developing MOEs to evaluate tactical and operational mission progress. Furthermore, the authors identify deficiencies in doctrine and recommend the creation of doctrine-specific to SOF Civil Affairs.