The role of civil affairs in unconventional warfare

With the renewed focus on Unconventional Warfare as a means of achieving U.S. Foreign and National Security Policy goals, the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Civil Affairs force must assess its capability to conduct Civil Affairs operations in support of an Unconventional Warfare campaign. This thesis examines Civil Affairs current role and surveys past conflicts to explore Civil Affairs potential role in all phases of Unconventional Warfare. It assumes that political and logistical networks are the keys to building and sustaining a revolutionary movement. This thesis answers the following questions How can Civil Affairs forces in place now and deployed for an operation identify, develop and motivate revolutionary networks that can be activated to sustain a revolution and fulfill U.S. policy needs within a foreign nation How can Civil Affairs doctrine be revised to better support these taskshttp://archive.org/details/theroleofcivilff1094527789Master Sergeant, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited