Attention, federal employees: Looking for a way to get out from behind that desk? The Civilian Response Corps may have a job for you.
The State Department's Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization is now advertising positions with the active and standby components of the Corps, which is supposed to provide a deployable pool of civilian experts willing to travel on short notice to support reconstruction missions overseas. Active personnel will train to deploy within 48 hours; the standby pool will be available within 30 days. Both components will perform critical civilian reconstruction tasks in stability operations (think pre-conflict situations, peacekeeping or disaster relief). A reserve pool of non-government employees is also in the works, although those positions have not yet been funded.
Government Executive has more details. Ambassador John Herbst, State's coordinator for reconstruction and stabilization, told the magazine the department has started recruiting for 100 active-component members and 500 standby personnel. Experts are needed in public health, police work, public administration, law, engineering and other fields. In parallel, the State Department's Foreign Service Institute is also launching a new training course designed to prepare civilians who want to join the response corps roster for deployment to post-conflict situations.
Keith Mines, a standby component member who deployed last year to
Sudan's Darfur region, described serving in one of these reconstruction and stabilization jobs as "like being in a small consulate on steroids."
These assignments, he said, "require all the skills one has, and then some, and you are suddenly the specialist on anything from field communications to security. They require intense negotiating skills, with warlords, local officials, and allied and U.S. military officers, and often in an environment where one has precious little to offer."
Basically, President Barack Obama is building on an initiative launched under President George W. Bush. In his final years in office, Bush -- who famously remarked during the 2000 election campaign that the military should not be in the business of nation building -- embraced the nation-building idea, and his administration took tentative steps toward building a reserve of civilian experts who could deploy in support of stability operations.
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of State]
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