While serving as the Commanding General of Joint Special Operations Command, then Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal recognized both the importance and difficulty of robust interagency (IA) coordination, opining something to the effect of, “if you feel like you’re doing more than your fair share in making the inter-agency process work, you’re not doing enough. If you feel like you are going way above & beyond what you should to make the IA process work, you might be doing it right. And we need everyone feeling like that.” Given the complexity of missions that require skillful navigation of complex human terrain, effective IA coordination is especially important for Civil Affairs (CA) soldiers. This brief article therefore endeavors to explain why effective IA coordination is challenging, and what CA can do about it. It is adapted, with permission, from the authors’ forthcoming monograph with Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) Press, Barriers to Special Operations Forces-Led Counterterrorism.
Publication Information
Koven, Barnett S. and Katy Lindquist. 2021. "Effective Interagency Coordination: Barriers and Opportunities." Civ-Mil Nexus 1 (June): 7-10. https://www.start.umd.edu/sites/default/files/publications/local_attachments/CIV-MIL%20Nexus_Volume_1.pdf