The Fate of the Civilian Surge in a Changing Environment | Page 24

perfectly exemplifies the conversion of Szayna’s bureaucratic firemen into policemen.
In terms of capabilities and capacity, civilian agencies maintain trained and ready personnel in narrow
lines of effort along the R&S spectrum. USAID’s OFDA
and OTI are organized, authorized, and resourced to
address HADR and political transitions respectively.
Within those narrow lines of effort, OFDA and OTI
maintain an appropriate range of capabilities and can
access surge personnel using dedicated “bull pens”
of specialized civilian contractors. These individuals,
often with years of international experience in crisis
response, allow OFDA to mobilize disaster assistance
response teams, while OTI jumpstarts transition activities within days or sometimes hours of an emergency.
In addition, OFDA maintains standing agreements
with municipal first responders in Fairfax, Virginia
and Los Angeles, California, which function as a corps
of civilian reservists for its work in disaster response.59
Outside of these specialized realms, the DOS and
USAID each employ several hundred personnel with
Peace and Security capabilities – a small force covering a wide area of operations.60 The recently created
Office of the Undersecretary of State for Citizen Security, Democracy and Human Rights – known by its acronym “J” – oversees seven DOS offices and bureaus
that manage Peace and Security resources, including
CSO. At USAID, the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict
and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) comprises offices devoted to conflict management and mitigation;
democracy, human rights and governance; emergency
food programs; and civil-military coordination – as
well as OFDA and OTI. Posted overseas in the Foreign
Service, State Department human rights officers and
USAID crisis, stabilization and governance officers

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