Preparing for Insurgencies

In the post-Cold War world, the United States and its allies have been involved in several military operations involving insurgencies. To effectively suppress these insurgencies, civilian and military cooperation is vital. In the future, the US should establish a highly flexible, national-level organization to facilitate civil-military operations balancing the national instruments of power to deter or defeat insurgencies. In order to establish this organization, lessons should be taken from other successful civil-military organizational concepts. By examining the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support program established during the Vietnam War, one finds an effective civil-military operation. Likewise, the Provincial Reconstructions Teams (PRT) created in Afghanistan and the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS) provide examples of civil-military cooperation. Although CORDS, PRTs, and S/CRS models provide organizational strengths, they also have drawbacks. By drawing from the successes of the CORDS, PRT, and S/CRS concepts and learning from their weaknesses, an organization should be created to ensure superior civil-military cooperation to deter or eradicate insurgencies.