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FEATURE ARTICLE
August 2005
U.S. Shifting Focus to ‘Stability Operations’
By Harold Kennedy
After years of trying to minimize U.S. participation in peacekeeping
operations, the Bush administration is embarking upon an ambitious
effort to improve the ability of the military services—and
related civilian agencies—to conduct such missions as part
of its global war on terrorism.
At
press time, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was preparing to issue
a new directive spelling out how his department would plan, train,
conduct and support peacekeeping assignments, which the Pentagon
prefers to call stability operations.
“Stability operations connote something different from traditional
peacekeeping missions,” Jeffrey Nadaner, deputy assistant
defense secretary for stability operations, told National Defense.
“They are more than UN blue helmets manning border checkpoints.”
Since it was created after World War II, the United Nations has
conducted 48 peacekeeping operations. Such missions typically have
involved lightly armed uniformed observers monitoring a ceasefire
between two warring parties, with little authority to intervene.
In contrast, stability operations, as defined by the Defense Department,
are conducted, at least in part, by robust, combat-equipped military
units that can use whatever force is necessary to end fighting and
restore a functioning society in a war-torn region, Nadaner said.
Although Rumsfeld has yet to sign the proposed directive, it already
“has launched a huge process within the Department of Defense
and all of its components,” Nadaner noted. All of the services,
regional combatant commands, U.S. Joint Forces Command and Special
Operations Command are scrambling to figure out their roles in such
missions, he said. The Defense Department has been doing stability
operations for at least 15 years, but “we need to do them
better,” he explained.
“Stability operations need to receive a similar priority
as major combat operations. That involves developing a set of metrics
for measuring how to flesh out contingency plans for stability operations,
just like we have for combat scenarios.”
Among the issues that planners are studying is what percentage
of officers should have training in certain languages, Nadaner said.
Military units need to be able to operate immediately in almost
any culture, he noted. “Before 9/11, one could never have
imagined U.S. troops in Afghanistan.”
In addition, the department is considering whether the uniformed
services need to create whole new units dedicated to peacekeeping.
One National Defense University proposal calls for converting two
active-duty Army divisions into fulltime stabilization and reconstruction
units. These organizations would include military police, engineer,
medical, civil affairs and psychological operations units—all
of which have been in high demand for peacekeeping operations—along
with a medium-weight Stryker brigade.
Nadaner, however, doesn’t think that is a good idea. “My
thinking is that creating specialized units could be very costly
and not create the capabilities that you need in stability operations,”
he said.
A former Marine Corps commandant, Gen. Charles C. Krulak, once
said that the United States needs to be able to fight a three-block
war, Nadaner noted, with one block engaged in heavy combat, another
in stability operations and a third in recovery.
“I think the United States needs an all-utility force. Troops
should be very adaptable. It would serve the nation very well if
they had more stability-operations training, but when they are deployed,
they have to be ready for combat. In today’s environment,
there is no front or rear.”
The Bush administration also has become convinced that stability
operations require a stronger effort from U.S. civilian agencies.
(see related story)
The shift toward stability operations is a big change of direction
for this administration, which came into office resisting the idea
of using U.S. military forces to engage in “nation building”
in strife-ridden countries, such as Haiti, Somalia and Bosnia.
U.S. experience in Afghanistan and Iraq—where fighting continues
years after the declared end to major combat operations—has
persuaded both civilian and uniformed officials that the United
States needs to be better prepared to use its military might to
help prevent conflicts from breaking out and, if that fails, to
stop the violence and begin reconstruction as soon as possible,
Nadaner said.
An early indication of the administration’s change in attitude
came in 2003, when the Army reversed its decision to close its Peacekeeping
Institute at Carlisle Barracks, Pa. Instead, the facility—established
a decade earlier as part of the Army War College—was renamed
the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, and its staff
has been doubled, from 10 to 20, according to the director, Army
Col. John F. Agoglia.
The institute’s mission, he said, is to advise senior defense
leaders, service and combatant commanders, and civilian officials
in related government agencies regarding peacekeeping and stability
operations. “One of the things we are trying to do is to build
long-term relationships between the military institutions, civilian
agencies and international non-government organizations involved
in stability operations,” Agoglia said.
The administration took another step toward embracing stability
operations in June 2004, when Bush endorsed a plan developed by
the G8 countries—the eight major industrial democracies—to
expand global peacekeeping capabilities as a way to pacify troubled
regions, such as Africa. The plan, dubbed the Global Peacekeeping
Initiative, committed the G8 countries to:
- By 2010, train and equip 75,000 troops around the world
to conduct peace-support operations.
- Develop a transportation and logistics system to deploy
and support peacekeeping units in the field.
- Establish a facility in Vincenza, Italy, to increase the
capabilities and interoperability of constabulary or gendarme forces.
These are police units with military organizations and abilities,
such as the Italian Carabinieri, French Gendarmerie and Spanish
Guardia Civil.
- Create a clearinghouse for member countries to exchange
information and coordinate peace operations training and exercises
in Africa.
For the United States to do its part, Bush proposed to increase
funding for peace-support operations by $660 million over the next
five years.
Under the African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance
program, a White House official noted, the United States has trained
and helped equip more than 12,000 peacekeepers from 10 African countries.
Under the Enhanced International Peacekeeping Capabilities program,
the United States also has helped a total of 29 countries improve
the ability of their military services to conduct such operations.
In June, the Defense Department kicked off the Trans Saharan Counterterrorism
Initiative with Exercise Flintlock 2005. Approximately 1,000 U.S.
special operations forces began training their counterparts from
seven Saharan countries in military tactics considered critical
in enhancing regional security and stability.
The Trans Saharan initiative follows a Pan Sahel effort that was
launched after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks as a means to prevent
terrorists from establishing bases in Mali, Mauritania, Chad and
Niger. The new program adds Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal and
Nigeria to the training list.
The seven countries share vast, relatively unpopulated and ungoverned
regions crisscrossed by traditional caravan routes, which can provide
hideouts and staging areas for terrorists and criminals, U.S. defense
officials said.
The ability of African nations to conduct peacekeeping operations
was likely to be tested in July, when the African Union planned
to begin increasing its UN-sponsored peacekeeping force in Sudan’s
Darfur region from 3,320 troops currently to more than 7,700. An
estimated 180,000 Sudanese have died in Darfur, and 2 million others
have been driven from their homes during a conflict between rebels
and pro-government militia.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose country is a member
of the AU, said in June that the union had not asked for any nation
outside of Africa to deploy troops to Darfur. “It’s
an African responsibility, and we can do it,” he told reporters
at the White House.
NATO has agreed to provide logistical support, including airlift.
The United States helped transport the first contingent of African
peacekeepers to Darfur, and Bush promised Mbeki that U.S. assets
would participate in the latest effort.
Meanwhile, also in June, the United Nations extended the mandate
of its peacekeeping mission in Haiti for another eight months and
added more than 1,000 military and police personnel, bringing the
Brazilian-led force to a total of nearly 9,400 in preparation for
elections later this year. The UN unit replaced U.S. troops who
deployed to the country in 2004.
That same month, a U.S. Institute of Peace Task Force on the United
Nations, mandated by Congress, reported that current UN peacekeeping
efforts “are bedeviled by limited capacity and operational
challenges.” While many UN peacekeeping operations—from
Namibia to Kosovo—have helped to provide stability and to
promote political and economic development, “there also have
been tragic failures,” said the task force, which was chaired
by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Senate Majority
Leader George Mitchell. In some places, such as Sierra Leone, East
Timor, Rwanda and Srebenica, large-scale killings took place despite
the presence of UN peacekeepers.
“In addition, the credibility of UN peacekeeping has been
badly damaged by revelations of sexual exploitation and abuse in
the UN operations in the Congo and elsewhere,” the report
said. The task force recommended that the United States press the
United Nations to make the following reforms:
- Develop plans for multi-dimensional peace operations that
thoroughly integrate security needs with economic and political
development requirements. Prior to deployment, a strategic assessment
of the crisis should be made to determine the full range of measures
that will be necessary.
- Quickly implement a policy of zero tolerance of sexual
exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers.
- Enforce uniform standards of conduct for all civilian and
military participants, and improve related training programs. Hold
senior managers accountable.
- Do not accept peacekeepers from countries that are unable
to discipline their troops
- Deploy more women peacekeepers.
- Assist the victims of conflicts.
- Substantially increase the availability of capable, designated
forces, properly trained and equipped for rapid deployment.
The United States should strengthen its participation in building
international capacity for regional peacekeeping, the task force
said. The Defense Department’s recent efforts to enhance coordination
and capabilities for stability operations “set the right tone,”
but it could do more, the report said.
For example, the United States participates in the UN’s stand-by
system, which maintains a list of countries willing to deploy on
peacekeeping missions and the resources they can contribute. But
the task force said that U.S. participation “is of only limited
operational value ... as it provides only a very general list of
U.S. capabilities, with little indication of what precisely might
be forthcoming.” More than 50 governments, including the United
Kingdom, Australia and many other U.S. allies, provide more detailed
information about the support they might consider, the task force
noted.
The United States also should support the creation of a senior
police-force management unit to assist in the establishment of new
peace operations and increased, longer range funding for such missions,
the task force said.
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