Civilian Response Operations

Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization
July 14, 2008

Civilian Readiness and Response

The Division is responsible for the training, equipping, deployment, and after-action coordination for the Active and Standby components of the Civilian Response Corps (CRC). The Active and Standby components, along with a planned Reserve component, are the operational units coordinated by S/CRS that form the core of the U.S. Government’s civilian response capability for international reconstruction and stabilization efforts. Working in the interagency and with the S/CRS Planning and Resource Management offices, we are continually developing plans and systems to more effectively organize, manage, train and deploy the CRC Active and Standby components. As organized, with additional staff, the Division will have the capacity to absorb management of the Reserve component of the CRC once established. A training unit is responsible for S/CRS and CRC training and professional development.

Active Component

Operations

We recruit, train and manage Active Members of the State Department’s Civilian Response Corps. Active Members are full-time, direct-hire employees. The office also deploys these officers, as individuals or in groups as necessary, to perform reconstruction and stabilization duties worldwide.

Development

We are conceptualizing, planning, and coordinating the much larger interagency Active component directed by National Security Presidential Directive 44 (NSPD-44). We work with other elements of S/CRS, with relevant State Department bureaus, and with the interagency to build the numbers and the capabilities of the Active component.

Standby Component

Standby Members of the Civilian Response Corps are U.S. Government employees who have stepped forward to be on the cutting edge of transformational diplomacy in stabilization and reconstruction and political transition missions. Standby Members maintain their current position but can be called to deploy, on 30 days’ notice, to unconventional, challenging environments where their motivation, specialized knowledge, and professional agility can make the difference. We are currently engaged in further operationalizing the Standby component to ensure a robust and timely response to a call-up. Although we have and will continue to deploy Standby Members of the CRC as needed, we are concurrently recruiting, training and developing management systems for the much larger interagency Standby component proposed in the Civilian Stabilization Initiative.

Training

We maintain and increase the operational readiness of the Active and Standby components through a robust training, education and exercise program for deployable personnel and management. We also implement and further develop integrated training strategies for these and related USG staff that focus on providing skills and knowledge needed to address performance gaps identified for the full range of potential reconstruction and stabilization efforts. We work with a broad range of U.S. Government organizations, including a variety of Department of Defense training and education organizations, and with international and private sector training and education institutions.

Civilian Reserve Development

"A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them. And it would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time."- President Bush’s State of the Union Address, January 23, 2007

The Reserve component of the Civilian Response Corps (CRC-R) will complement the standing response capacity of U.S. civilian agencies to address reconstruction and stabilization challenges as a priority component of U.S. national security.

When authorized and funded to stand up a Reserve component of the Civilian Response Corps, the Division of Civilian Readiness and Response of S/CRS will support the recruitment, hiring, training, administration, management, and deployment of Reserve Members of the Civilian Response Corps.