ABSTRACT
World War I began the great unraveling of the Westphalia state system that had remained in place since 1648. The devolution that began in 1914 was intensified on September 11, 2001 and finds contemporary peak in the discussion on cyber-attacks that has already an impact on state relations and systems of governance. The terms Civil–Military and Civ–Mil are commonly employed with little regard for what they communicate. They have become catch-all terms for actions that occur within an often ill-defined civil–military space. There is presently no agreed upon universal definition of civil–military operations. Civ–Mil is more a conversation than a complete idea, just as stability operations, in general, are more a dialogue than a theory. Civ–Mil is anchored in notions of democracy and civilian control of the military, going back to the art of war, addressing the need for military and non-state actors to join in interacting with indigenous populations.
