Control Roaming Dogs: Governance Operations in Future Conflict

Abstract

Abstract : Governance operations are integral to all military campaigns where the establishment of local government over ungoverned or disrupted political space is required to secure an intended strategic endstate. Despite the inseparable role of governance throughout war history, the United States has been reluctant to embrace a military role for establishing civil government. Aversion is rooted in concerns about military involvement in a fundamentally political activity and the military's unwillingness to divert attention from its combat arms. As a result, governance operations have been treated as tangential post-conflict missions, leaving field commanders ill-prepared for governance and delaying consolidation of political aims. Governance operations are integral to every phase of war, and their relevance to future conflict is increased by the interplay of globalization, transnational threats, and failing states. Military commanders will continue to serve as provincial governors and city mayors in conflict zones. To meet the emergent security challenge of ungoverned space, this paper proposes a more developed concept of operations for governance. It offers a conceptual framework for improving the ability of military forces to deliver basic public services while simultaneously developing an indigenous capacity for good, democratic governance. Governance operations at the local level set the conditions for national-level projects and the ultimate transition to civil authority. Moreover it identifies governance tasks and competencies, including public management and capacity building, which do not wholly reside within the Department of Defense. Therefore,