The latest volume of “Civil Affairs Issue Papers”—a joint effort between the Civil Affairs Association and the Association of the U.S. Army—is now available.

The seventh edition of the series contains a report from the 2020 Civil Affairs Symposium and five authored papers on topics such as information operations, civil-military operations and relations, operating in the gray zone, using civil affairs to defeat hybrid threats, and great-power competition.

Presented at the Civil Affairs Association’s annual symposium in October, the five papers were selected for publication by AUSA, and the authors of the top three papers were given cash prizes ranging from $250 to $1,000.

The winner was “Changing the Business Model III: Renewing Civil Affairs’ Influence-Based Capabilities” by Lt. Col. Shafi Saiduddin and Robert Schafer, and in second place was “A Gap in Thought and Deed: Civil-Military Relations and Civil-Military Operations” by Master Sgt. Larry Lloyd.

“Civil Affairs and Civil-Military Cooperation: A Hybrid Solution to Defeat Hybrid Threats,” by Maj. Csaba Szabó of the Hungarian army and U.S. Army Master Sgt. Robert Nicholson, was the third-place winner. 

Additional papers include “Civil Considerations in an Era of Great-Power Competition,” by Lt. Col. Diana Parzik and Maj. Michael Schwille, and “Into the Gray Zone: Integration of Civil Affairs and Information Operations with Embassies,” by Capt. Scot Haviland, Maj. David Cook and Maj. Don Newberry, who all serve in the Marine Corps Forces Reserve.

The series serves as the Civil Affairs Association’s “capstone to deepen and broaden the formal processes of civil affairs” on topics such as policy, doctrine, training, materiel and leadership, the volume says.

Read the full report and papers here.