Expeditionary Civilians: Creating a Viable Practice of Department of Defense Civilian Deployment

"U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 1404.10 (2009) mandates a reliance on military and civilian capabilities to meet national security requirements and requires the identification of a subset of civilians to be organized, trained, and equipped torespond to expeditionary requirements. DoD policy on expeditionary civilians has yet to be fully implemented, however. This end-to-end review and analysis of DoD civilian deployment aims to inform DoD's policy and practice for using deployable civilians to meet mission needs ten to 20 years into the future. It assesses the viability of DoD's civilian deployment framework in meeting its current policy goals, identifies gaps between policy and practice, and proposes a systematic approach to developing and maintaining a civilian deployment capability that meets the current and future needs of U.S. combatant commands. The findings and conclusions are informed by a detailed policy review and interviews with more than 80 officials from organizations that deploy civilians, including DoD, the military services, the combatant commands, and analogous U.S. and foreign government agencies. The study was the first to review in detail combatant command requirements for expeditionary civilian capabilities. Looking ahead, lessons and insights from analogous organizations' approaches to civilian deployment could inform DoD civilian deployment policy and practice"--Back cover.