International Affairs Career Field

Overview

In today's dynamic global security environment, building strong relationships with allies and partners has never been more relevant, or more important. International relationships are critical enablers for US Air Force expeditionary air and space forces conducting global operations and fighting the war on terrorism. Building these critical relationships requires skilled, knowledgeable, and experienced International Affairs (IA) professionals to execute programs in support of the US Air Force mission and US national security objectives. These programs include political-military affairs, security assistance, foreign disclosure and export control, technology and information transfer, military personnel exchange programs, and cooperative research development and acquisition.

The International Affairs Career Field (IACF) analyzes the specialized knowledge and skills required for civilians to execute IA programs and identifies the education, training, and assignment experiences that develop our workforce to meet those requirements. Our Air Force, and indeed our nation, depends on our political-military expertise to build relationships with our partners and allies that facilitate access and overflight, partner nation capability and capacity, and ultimately, coalition interoperability. IACF is a key element in deliberately developing our IA professionals. Since reaching full operational capability in October 2007, IACF has greatly improved our ability to recruit, educate, train, and retain, a superior team capable of meeting present and future challenges.

Read more about the IACF in an Air Force news article.

Civilian Development Plans

The International Affairs Career Field (IACF) Development Team (DT) will convene at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph on 6 - 8 Feb 2018 to review Civilian Development Plans (CDPs) and provide feedback to participating team members in the form of training, education, and potential future assignment vectors. The CDP is the mechanism whereby all IACF members can communicate their career desires and receive feedback and mentoring by their senior leaders. IACF civilians, regardless of series, who are interested in leadership development, Civilian Developmental Education (BDE/IDE/SDE, experiential and academic programs), and career broadening or cross functional assignment opportunities, should complete a CDP

The IT mechanism that we utilized in the past, T-CDP, is no longer available. We anticipate being able to utilize MyVector, which is still in development, for our CDP submissions in 2019. In the interim, we have developed a simple, one-page form (attached) for employees to fill out and route through their leadership chain. This form, along with a resume in CDE format (attached), will comprise an individual's Civilian Development Plan. CDPs must be reviewed and signed by the employee's supervisor and next level endorser. For GS-14 and below, the endorser should be the first O-6 or GS-15 in the individual's leadership chain. For GS-15s, the endorser should be the first General Officer or SES in their leadership chain.

Submissions should be emailed to the IA Career Field Team workflow address at afpc.ia.cft@us.af.mil, with a courtesy copy to corey.owens@us.af.mil.

We encourage all employees to participate in this process, regardless of career aspirations. If you do not wish to participate, you do not need to respond in any manner, although your feedback is always welcome. For individuals who are not willing to relocate but would like some training to enhance their skills in their current position, we have budgeted for several operational / strategic leadership and professional development courses that you might be interested in. For those interested in career progression, there are a number of professional development mechanisms that can certainly enhance your resume and make you more competitive for the next level position, to include the Operational / Strategic Level development courses as well as applicable Civilian Developmental Education programs. For employees simply seeking opportunities in a different organization, the career field has limited ability to influence hiring authority decisions, but if we know your career desires, then we may be able to identify opportunities and perhaps facilitate placement.