forces in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments to seize, destroy, capture, exploit, recover
or damage designated targets, or influence threats.”12
These doctrine changes create a more clearly defined
role for CA within Special Operations, but are sufficiently broad enough that they do not constrain CA to
a particular role or phase of an operation.
A prerequisite for influencing a population is
achieving a deep understanding of culture, social
or tribal dynamics, local forms of governance and
politics. Furthermore, this understanding must be actionable, moving beyond the typical area study and
involving lasting relationships with government and
military officials as well as influential non state actors. There is a limit to how much this effort can be
achieved through episodic engagement such as traditional military exercises. CA teams, working out of an
embassy on a rotational basis, are in a perfect position
t