Dear Colleague:

U.S. intervention into conflict and post-conflict regions now requires the military, members from civilian government agencies, and members from non-state actors, such as non-governmental organizations and contractors, to work together more closely than ever before.

While they may all share a desired endstate, they may not share immediate goals or approaches to getting there. Their institutional cultures and values differ, and their operational strengths and weaknesses are not always complementary. Thus, there is often friction between civilian and military leaders both in Washington and in the field.

There is no model of how to resolve the friction, promote efficient and effective partnership, and still have each organization contribute what it can to solving the problem without sacrificing its unique identity. This conference will bring these groups together and start the dialogue between them about how to get a working solution in place given our present set of conditions.

The conference will bring together young professional and career specialists from the NGO, civilian, and military communities. The conference will focus on bridging cultural differences between the organizations, and how to find working solutions in fragile state environments.

It is not designed to revisit what needs to be done at the federal policy and funding level. Rather, this is an exciting opportunity for the military, vivilian, and NGO communities to come together and develop working solutions for the immediate future while at the same time forming professional relationships across the various organizations that are involved in a fragile-state situation. I hope you will be able to join us.

The Conference is also the inaugural event of the YPFP Civil-Military Dialogue series. In the near term, we hope to create a group of professionals from across communities that can develop greater familiarity and understanding while working toward practical and implementable solutions and useful relationships. In the long term, we want to create a group of young professionals versed in the “boots on the ground” challenges of military and civilian interaction in conflict zones with knowledge they can use to address these issues in a meaningful way in their future careers.

I hope you are able to join us for YPFP’s Annual Conference on May 5. It promises to be a lively and engaging event on a timely and important topic.

Sincerely,

Noah Kanter

Chair, Civil Military Dialogue &
Chair, YPFP 2007 Annual Conference