The Birth of the Civilian Response Corps

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq showcased the might and competence of the American military, but they exposed severe deficits in America's capacity for stabilization, reconstruction, development, and civilian management of postconflict environments. The US does not have civilian institutions comparable to its military force. Dr. David Kilcullen, an Australian military officer and counterinsurgency advisor to General Petraeus, addressed this in a May 2007 article titled New Paradigms for 21st Century Conflict. According to Kilcullen, "the U.S. defense budget accounts for approximately half of total global defense spending, while the U.S. armed forces employ about 1.68 million uniformed members. By comparison, the State Department employs about 6,000 foreign service officers, while the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has about 2,000. In other words, the Department of Defense is about 210 times larger than USAID and State combined—there are substantially more people employed as musicians in Defense bands than in the entire foreign service."

Various proposals exist to revitalize America's civilian institutions. Many have called for the creation of a peacebuilding force that would parallel the US military, but specialize in the kind of postwar management and reconstruction that Iraq and Afghanistan have desperately needed.

On July 16th, the US State Department kicked off a plan to do just that--but the meager size of the program only highlights the lack of political momentum behind strengthening America's civilian foreign policy institutions. According to a State department fact sheet, the Civilian response Corps will consist of 250 full-time employees and 2,000 "standby" members who can "deploy rapidly to countries in crisis or emerging from conflict, in order to provide reconstruction and stabilization assistance." President Bush has requested $248.6 million in the FY2009 budget to support the program. These are paltry numbers compared to the scale of the need. The Fact Sheet contains the crucial words "if fully funded", which suggests that the future of even this small operation is in question.

I welcome the creation of a Civilian Response Corps, but only as a stepping stone towards a larger program with the capacity to help manage real-world conflicts. The last thing the United States needs is another neglected, underfunded organization tasked with the impossible. If the US is serious about revitalizing its civilian institutions, it must make real investments in their future.