Marine Corps Lessons
In promoting the role of Marine Corps CA in support of Marine Air-Ground Task Forces (MAGTF),
Colonel Leonard J. DeFrancisci highlighted the DoD
strategic themes of understanding the environment,
interagency coordination, and host-nation partnering.
Seeing offensive, defensive, and stability operations
as components requiring differential weighting that
reflects characteristics of the mission at hand, Marine
Corps CA has been most successful recently when the
CA elements were closely integrated in the MAGTF
structure rather than operating independently.
Of all the Services, the Marine Corps most clearly
recognizes CA as critical to stability operations. In accord with counterinsurgency, the Marines have historically stressed classic “small wars” approaches of
restoring services and facilitating economic stability.
These tasks require collaboration with interagency and
host-nation partners, and such collaboration demands
both an understanding of differing execution horizons
and abiding by the principle of unity of command, a
recurring theme that requires continuous exploration.
Interagency planners recognize that Congress funds
agencies for specific purposes, and specific agencies
emphasize an end-state that can differ from the one
the military tends to seek. Harmonizing these disparate activities requires mutual understanding and
shared experience.
Shared experience and close collaboration leads to
some shared insights as well. Marine Civil Affairs has
been particularly aware of the need to identify causes
of instability, mapping the human terrain, and conducting a civilian-oriented preparation of the battlefield. CA builds awareness of the civil domain much
17