Commander's Guide to Money as a Weapons System

This Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) handbook assists company-, battalion-, and brigade-level officers and noncommissioned officers to effectively use money as a weapons system on the counterinsurgency (COIN) battlefield. Coalition money is defeating COIN targets without creating collateral damage, by motivating antigovernment forces to cease lethal and nonlethal operations, by creating and providing jobs along with other forms of financial assistance to the indigenous population, and by restoring or creating vital infrastructure. Money also funds other tools of war. Key lessons: * Money is a valuable weapons system. * Money and contracting in a COIN environment are vital elements of combat power. * Leaders must leverage money and contracting in operations. * Leaders must understand funding programs and contracting. * Brigades often lack internal resource management expertise and knowledge of funding. * Financial management administrative requirements in a combat environment can be extremely burdensome but are necessary for good stewardship. * Financial management expertise and knowledge of funding are critical to successful operations. * Without proactive leadership involvement, the potential for extensive fraud, waste, and abuse of funds exists in the COIN environment. This handbook is a guide and addresses some of the most common funds available to warfighters. Since policies, procedures, and guidelines change as do sources and amounts of funds available to fund warfighters, obtain the latest funding information from the supporting resource manager before taking action to fund warfighters.