About Civil Affairs

Civil Affairs (CA) provides the military commander and the US Country Team with expertise on the civil component of the operational environment. The commander and the US Country Team use CA’s capabilities to analyze and influence the human terrain through specific processes and dedicated resources and personnel. As part of the commander’s civil-military operations, CA conducts operations nested within the overall mission and intent. CA significantly helps ensure the legitimacy and credibility of the mission by advising on how to best meet the moral and legal obligations to the people affected by military operations. The key to understanding the role of CA is recognizing the importance of leveraging each relationship between the command and every individual, group, and organization in the operational environment to achieve a desired effect.

Mission

The mission of CA forces is to engage and influence the civil populace by planning, executing, and transitioning Civil Affairs operations in Army, joint, interagency, and multinational operations to support commanders and the US Country Team engage the civil component of their operational environment, in order to enhance civil-military operations or other stated U.S. objectives before, during, or after other military operations.

  Civil Affairs operations (CAO) are conducted by CA Soldiers and consist of the following core tasks: