Foreign Policy

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30 May 2008
Peacekeeping Initiative Aims to Meet Growing Demand

By Merle Kellerhals
Staff Writer

Washington -- Confronted with a shortage of capable peacekeepers and a limited ability to train soldiers and special police units for peace operations amid increasing demand, the United States and its Group of Eight (G8) partners agreed to a plan to meet the demand. The Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) is the United States’ effort to meet the commitments in that plan.

An increase in the number of peacekeeping operations -- from four in 1988 to 20 in 2008 -- has resulted in a corresponding demand for peacekeepers; at the same time, fewer trained, equipped and effective forces have been available to respond.

In recognition of these challenges, President Bush announced the creation of GPOI in April 2004. "It provides $660 million over five years to train 75,000 peacekeepers worldwide, with a focus on Africa," said Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer. The African focus reflects the sizeable percentage of peacekeeping missions that are needed there, she said.

Through April 2008, the initiative has trained 39,518 military personnel from 43 countries in peacekeeping duties. This includes 2,719 soldiers trained as peacekeeping trainers.

The GPOI training program is conducted at 18 peace operations training centers in Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, the Near East, South and Central Asia, and Latin America.

State officials say that 33,590 of the 39,518 peacekeepers trained through GPOI have deployed to 18 peacekeeping operations to date -- in such places as southern Sudan, Darfur, Lebanon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, Somalia, Western Sahara, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Solomon Islands, and the Central African Republic.

An additional aspect of the initiative is to build sustainment and self-sufficiency capabilities in each GPOI partner country so it can, over the long term, prepare its own forces for peacekeeping operations, said Michael Larmas Smith, the GPOI program director in the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. The bureau has overall management responsibility for the program.

Besides helping to train peacekeepers, the initiative also is designed to provide transportation and logistics to support peacekeeping forces, Smith said.

The transportation and logistics support arrangement (TLSA) helps provide transportation for deploying peacekeepers, especially for nations that don't have that capability, and logistics support to sustain those units while they are in the field, Smith said. It was created in 2007, and five of the eight members of the G8 currently provide points of contact to assess potential TLSA requests.

Other peace operations personnel in short supply are stability police. Stability Police Units (SPUs) are gendarme-like or constabulary-like forces that fill the gap between military peacekeeping and traditional policing duties. Through GPOI, the United States has provided support to the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (COESPU), an international center in Vicenza, Italy, that trains stability police trainers from around the world.

The G8 major industrialized nations -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- began recognizing the challenges to peace operations in early 2002, and in 2004 drafted a plan to manage the rising demand.

At the 2004 G8 Sea Island Summit in the United States, the group adopted the "Sea Island Action Plan.” In the Sea Island Action Plan, G8 countries committed to train and equip 75,000 peacekeepers worldwide by 2010, create a clearinghouse for exchanging information, develop a transportation and logistics support arrangement, and support an international training center for gendarme-like units to support peace operations.

Bush discussed the concept of the initiative in his September 21, 2004, address at the opening of the 59th session of the U.N. General Assembly, saying that the world "must create permanent capabilities to respond to future crises." In particular, the president highlighted the need for "more effective means to stabilize regions in turmoil, and to halt religious violence and ethnic cleansing."

"We're just responding to that need," Smith said. "For example, we’ve also helped initiate a Global Clearinghouse, where countries can exchange information and help coordinate efforts to enhance peace operations training and exercises.” The first Global Clearinghouse was held in Washington in 2007.

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