Civic Action versus Counterinsurgency and Low Intensity Conflict in Latin America: The Case for Delinkage

This essay argues that civic action should once again be a topic that inflames our hearts and minds. The author points out that with peace breaking out in much of the world, and with shrinking U.S. military budgets, civic actions and humanitarian and civic assistance by U.S. military personnel hold the promise of meaningful training opportunities and the use of force structure. Moreover, she argues that civic assistance projects can advance the interest of the United States in supporting democracy throughout a Third World that is increasingly unable to pay for development commercially. But the author finds that these opportunities are opening at a time when civic action is severely constrained by law and misunderstood by the public, both in the United States and in Latin America. Using the history of the civic action concept as applied to Latin America, the author examines the linkage between civic action and counterinsurgencylow intensity conflict and delineates a framework for the future in the form of a new U.S. Development Corps which would be structured to avoid political and doctrinal pitfalls that have marked the history of the civic action concept. edc