Standby Component, Civilian Response Corps

Note: Image taken from the June 2007 State Magazine article "Response Corps – Making a Difference in Darfur." S/CRS' Eythan Sontag, second from left, and Civilian Response Corps Standby component member Keith Mines, far right, meet with the head of the Legislative Council in El Fasher, North Darfur.

The Standby Component of the Civilian Response Corps (CRC-S) is comprised of current U.S. Government employees who fill ongoing job responsibilities in their agency and are trained to deploy with the Corps on 30 days’ notice for reconstruction and stabilization operations.

The CRC-S can be deployed on short notice to unconventional, challenging environments where their motivation, specialized knowledge, and professional agility can make the difference. The CRC-S has been deployed in support of missions to Chad, the Darfur region of Sudan, Georgia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and civil-military training.

When deployed, CRC-S members, under the Chief of Mission, coordinate and support U.S. reconstruction and stabilization efforts. Deployment missions may cover security, justice and reconciliation, economic stability and infrastructure, refugees, and governance and participation. The Team could be based at a U.S. Mission, in the field, or co-located with multilateral assistance partners. Depending on the circumstances of U.S. involvement, teams may also work closely with the U.S. military.

If you feel ready to be part of this exciting initiative, and wish to expand your professional experience and opportunities for service, join the Standby Response Corps!

Snapshot from a deployed CRC-S member:

Serving in a Reconstruction and Stabilization job is like being in a small consulate on steroids. You are the RSO, Pol/Econ Section, IPC, OMS, GSO, and PD section, all rolled into one. It is also the place where a career's worth of skills come into play.

Most assignments tend to draw out a narrow slice of skills and experience, backed up by an array of specialists. Post-conflict assignments 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 war lords, local officials, and allied and U.S. military officers, and often in an environment where one has precious little to offer. Post-conflict jobs are on the front lines of policy in an environment where information is moving a hundred miles an hour, much of it disjointed or false. Ours is the task of making sense of it and writing rapidly with the eye of a trained observer.

They are invariably in austere environments, and certainly making do with few creature comforts is a part of the gig. But there are no awards for suffering, only for getting the job done, so one must still, in that austere environment, make a professional appearance, get out and safely meet people, and have a way for transmitting information.

They are usually in environments where translators and locally engaged staff have never worked for an Embassy, and in many cases never worked for anyone. Leadership and mentoring in an intense cross cultural environment are key to successful management. And they are conducted in an environment where interagency cooperation is not optional, but is a baseline requirement for success. This is the environment that brings it all together for a State Department professional.