Roundtable Report: A Shift in Focus and Approaches

The 2025 Civil Affairs (CA) Roundtable on April 8 th closed out another annual cycle of Civil Affairs Corps thematic discussions for CA force and professional development. As with all 16 Roundtables before it, this event’s look at “Teaming Civil Affairs – Lessons from the

Field” served to advance a more strategically coherent, comprehensive, and integrative narrative understanding of civil affairs. Download the Roundtable Report from the Association website.

Every year, the Roundtable shifts the CA Corps’ annual discussion toward how to best prepare CA forces in light of new strategic and policy guidance. Within the context of the annual theme, we take a closer look at the doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, facilities, and policy (DOTMLPF-P) implications of the new strategy and policy.

This year, under the direction of the new Association Vice President for Programs and Events, Col. Caroline Pogge, the Roundtable’s structure was somewhat different. It provided a more focused discussion on the activities of conventional and special operations CA forces, regional and host nation civil-military forces, and interagency partners in theater security cooperation, deterrence, and campaign planning in their assigned theaters. Civil Affairs Command (CACOM) staff facilitated panel discussions among professionals working within the geographic combatant commands (GCCs)—AFRICOM, CENTCOM, EUCOM, SOUTHCOM, and INDOPACOM (in that order). The first two discussions took place in the morning and the latter two in the early evening to accommodate time zone differences.

In other words, the Roundtable went regional to go global.

The Roundtable followed a similarly productive CA Symposium held near Philadelphia, PA, last November. The major observations of that event are captured in the Symposium Report posted in the 11 th volume of the Civil Affairs Issue Papers.

The most impactful and far-reaching of these observations was the need to promote a universal and unifying narrative on civil affairs, reflecting a growing consensus since the previous year. Keynote speaker Maj. Gen. Andrée (Dré) Carter, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne), underscored this observation by in her appeal to the audience to help with the issue of how well the Army and DoD understand CA as a full-phase or full-spectrum force. This need for a unifying narrative on CA was also reflected throughout the panel discussion, validating the Association’s initiative on its recently released narrative strategy, “Telling the Civil Affairs Story.”

Maj. Gen. Andrée (Dré) Carter, Commanding General, USACAPOC(A)

Maj. Gen. Carter also warned the audience that new the Army Structure (ARSTRUC) memorandum, which sets the organizations of Army formations for the next decade and identifies the proper capabilities at echelon, will have a significant impact on the Army and CA futures. “As a whole, we’ll be experiencing a lot of cuts throughout the Army – and quickly,” she noted, “because it will be a totally different looking Army.”

New Association Vice President for Publication and Civil Affairs Issue Papers Committee Chair, retired Brig. Gen. Glenn Goddard, led the open on the 2025-26 Civil Affairs Issue Papers for presentation the 2025 Symposium to take place in the Los Angeles, CA area from 13-15 November, and published prior to the 2026 Roundtable that takes place online each April.

This year’s Issue Papers, on “Redefining Civil Affairs,” will reflect an updated approach, including: increasing the cash award amounts for the top-ranking papers presented at the Symposium; broadening the themes to include a greater range to paper topics; and, enabling CA commands, proponents, and related institutions to have a greater stake in the Issue Paper enterprise by shaping submissions to support related organizational objectives.

Click here for the 2025-26 call for papers.

Association events are done with the participation and support of civil affairs proponents, such as the Army’s U.S. Army John F. Kenndy Special Warfare Center and School (USAJFKSWCS) and the Marine Corps Civil-Military Operations School (USMCCMO), CA commands like the U.S. Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne), or USACAPOC(A), 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Special Operations) (Airborne), or 95th CA Bde (SO) (A), and the Security Force Assistance and Stability Integration Directorate (SFASID, formerly, the U.S. Army Peacekeeping & Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI)), which is the Joint Proponent for peacekeeping and stability operations and the Army proponent for security force assistance, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO’s) Civil-Military Cooperation Center of Excellence (CCoE).

There are also numerous organizations with which the Association has been building relationships to facilitate the growth of a global civil-military network to enhance the visibility and value-added of civil affairs. These include the Association of the United States Army (AUSA), CCoE, Reserve Organization of America (ROA), Foreign Area Officer Association (FAOA), International Stability Operations Association (ISOA), Alliance for Peacebuilding, and U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. It also includes: the Modern War Institute and Irregular Warfare Initiative at West Point; the SFASID, the Joint Special Operations University; and, the Joint Civil-Military Interaction Network. Its sponsors include: The Patriot Fund; Third Order Effects; Civil Solutions International; Valka-Mir Human Security; and Conductrr.

The Roundtable agenda, slide decks, and other documents related to the discussion are available in the “2025 Roundtable” folder in the Research Library on the Association website. The full inventory of Civil Affairs Issue Papers and Roundtable Reports are also available on the website. Videos of the discussions are viewable on the Eunomia Journal YouTube channel.