The U.S. Army has indicated that it plans to eliminate a Pentagon office established just a year and a half ago to protect civilians in war zones as the Trump administration continues its efforts to undo the legacy of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The office, called the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, is the outgrowth of an initiative begun during President Trump’s first term by his first defense secretary, James N. Mattis, who ordered a study into how U.S. airstrikes had killed Iraqi civilians after a 2017 New York Times story on the subject.
After years of research, on Jan. 27, 2022, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III directed the Pentagon to formally establish a plan of action for reducing civilian harm and appointed a leader for the center in August 2023.
A memo dated Monday asks offices within the service to prepare a request for senior Army leaders to review no later than Feb. 21. It would call for the defense secretary to relieve the Army of its responsibility for the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence and then ask Congress to abolish it.
The Times obtained a copy of the memo, which was signed by Lt. Gen. Laura A. Potter, the director of the Army staff, and described earlier by The Washington Post.
The Army did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the memo.
The protection of civilians in war zones is required under the laws of armed conflict, and senior commanders draft rules of engagement for their forces to comply with them.
Long considered a bedrock of U.S. military culture, respect for those principles may be under threat in the second Trump administration.
At his Senate confirmation hearing last week, Pete Hegseth, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, said “restrictive rules of engagement” had made it more difficult to defeat enemies.
Mr. Hegseth, a former Army National Guard officer and Fox News host, also successfully lobbied Mr. Trump to issue pardons in 2019 for a number of service members who were accused or convicted of war crimes.
The center for civilian protection employs about 30 people, according to a defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe its functions. That team works with nearly 170 service members and civilians spread across the military’s combatant commands, which carry out operations around the world, the official said, adding that it was unclear whether the Army or Pentagon leadership would try to eliminate those positions as well.
With an operating budget of $7 million, the official said, it is the smallest “center of excellence” in the Army, and it directly supports planning for operations such as airstrikes in Yemen as well as analysis of those strikes.
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