This policy updates the Civilian-Military Cooperation Policy issued in July 2008, which established the foundation for cooperation between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United States Department of Defense (DoD). The 2008 policy established civilian-military cooperation as fundamental to a whole-of-government approach to contemporary national security challenges in keeping with the increasingly important role of development in advancing national security priorities along with defense and diplomacy.

This document builds upon the 2008 policy and incorporates what USAID has learned from working with DoD into updated and expanded guidance for all USAID personnel. Increasingly, USAID and DoD share the same operating space. In order to cooperate effectively in the diverse places where USAID and DoD personnel find each other, it is important to draw upon lessons from experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan and from cooperation in other countries and regions where we have worked together, including Colombia, the Philippines, the Balkans, and the Sahel.