Special Warfare | May-June 2010 (Vol. 23, Issue 3)

PERSISTENT ENGAGEMENT

Civil Military Support Elements [CMSE] Operating in CENTCOM

By Maj. Ross F. Lightsey, Sr.

In ongoing irregular conflicts, the civil-military support element, or CMSE, is a unique resource that provides military commanders and United States ambassadors in various regions and countries with a means of conducting decisive military-to-civilian engagements. Within the area of responsibility, or AOR, of the U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, strategic leaders are employing this vital tool to synchronize and unify joint, interagency, intergovernmental and multinational civic actions.

The new national civil-engagement strategy seeks to establish relationships and an enduring presence in areas of interest and to assist partner nations in building a capacity for recognizing and denying terrorist safe-havens around the globe. The 95th Civil Affairs Brigade, recently activated within the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, or USASOC, supports a key component of the new strategy: the Civil Military Engagement Program, or CMEP.

The strategy of persistent engagement is a worldwide effort to provide support from Civil Affairs, or CA, to the combatant commanders through five theater special-operations commands: Special Operations Command-Central, or SOCCENT; Special Operations Command-Europe; Special Operations Command-Pacific; Special Operations Command-Africa; and Special Operations Command-South.

Building on its extensive knowledge derived from supporting combined joint special-operations task forces, or CJSOTFs, in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Philippines over the past eight years, the 95th CA Brigade trains, equips and deploys CMSE teams that currently support operations in 23 countries. The CMSE mission is intended to fuse efforts of the Department of State, or DoS; Department of Defense, or DoD; and other U.S. agencies. Teams also share information with and facilitate the efforts of international organizations and nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, that are involved in building host-nation capacities. CMSEs provide much-needed interagency support to the on-ground commanders. It is a complicated and complex mission, and CMSE teams are receiving national-level attention as the conduit for the civil-engagement effort.

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See also:

• American Neo-Colonialism: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan | 11 July 2009
• Critical Notes on Obama’s Cairo Speech: Imperialism with a Human Face | 7 June 2009
• More on “Persistent Engagement” | 3 June 2009
• Persistent Engagement — Preview of an Emergent Obama Doctrine | 19 May 2009