425th Civil Affairs Battalion hosts unique, multi-disciplinary Provincial Reconstruction Team Conference

Photo By Master Sgt. Andy Yoshimura | Staff Sgt. Lamont Jones of the 425th Civil Affairs Battalion from Encino, Calif., spent a weekend at Claremont McKenna College with representatives from the U.S. Department of State and independent consultants and researchers in order to receive up-to-date information on the 425th's upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. The 425th is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in 2012.  

CLAREMONT, CA, UNITED STATES

10.02.2011

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Andy Yoshimura 

U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne)

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Class is in session for soldiers of the 425th Civil Affairs Battalion here on the campus of Claremont-McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. These civil affairs soldiers are not receiving grades, but are attending the first ever Provincial Reconstruction Team Conference, here Oct. 2, and receiving up-to-date information on civil affairs activities in Afghanistan from representatives of the U.S. Department of State and independent consultants who have recently returned from the country. The 425th will use these resources to help support the 12 Provincial Reconstruction Team missions assigned to the unit during their deployment to Afghanistan later this year.

Members of the Department of State talked about the recent history of Afghanistan and shared their perspectives of the PRT mission. They discussed issues and problems that the PRT’s faced in Afghanistan in the past and brought up many points that would help the 425th resolve these situations.

The commander of the 425th, Lt. Col. Michelle Haberlach, felt that spending the weekend with interagency partners was crucial. “It is important understanding the missions in Afghanistan from their view and hopefully developing some models for working together in the future.” said Haberlach.

Resident experts, reporters from The Wall Street Journal, and international policy advocates tackled current trends in Afghanistan and discussed gender issues that are important to understand when working on female engagement team missions – a popular program among coalition forces.

Stephenie Foster, a Professional Lecturer at the Women and Politics Institute at American University discussed the importance of female engagements “Because 50 percent of the world are women, it is important to ensure to engage at the beginning of any process and use that guiding principle as we work on institution building,” Foster said to the soldiers.

The conference also included a couple of audio teleconferences where guest speakers were able to educate these soldiers even though they weren’t in the lecture hall.

“This training is very unique because it is so interdisciplinary,” said Capt. Brian Batchelder of the 425th. “It is truly very collaborative in nature and reaching out to the experiences and missions from these various organizations makes the training more important.”

Conducting the conference in a non-military environment like Claremont-McKenna College helped attract civilian participation and enabled the unit to to reach out to the international relations-focused ROTC department. “Facilitating in this environment is about building relationships so we can both tap into their faculty resources in international relations and foreign language training, and build a future in civil affairs,” added Haberlach

“One of the biggest benefits is information exchange. We are able to share information and have local experts we can reach out to when we are downrange and benefit from their expertise,” said Haberlach.

• Date Taken: 10.02.2011
• Date Posted: 10.06.2011 16:47
• Story ID: 78143
• Location: CLAREMONT, CA, US