Enhancing European Military and Police Contributions to UN Peacekeeping

Enhancing European Military and Police Contributions to UN Peacekeeping FEBRUARY 2013 Demand for United Nations peacekeeping has been a consistent feature of the post–Cold War international peace and security agenda. Today, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations manages sixteen missions across the globe, using more than 80,000 troops, more than 13,000 police, and nearly 2,000 military observers, in addition to approximately 20,000 civilian personnel. Given its expanded size and needs, the burden of supporting UN On October 24–25, 2012, the peacekeeping must necessarily be shared among UN member states in various second regional roundtable of the ways. The US, Japan, and the European Union (EU) member states together International Peace Institute– fund around 80 percent of the UN peacekeeping budget, while “boots on the Pearson Centre Being a Peace - ground” are largely provided by African and Central and South Asian member keeper series took place in Berlin, states, which together provide 71 percent of the UN’s uniformed personnel. Germany, hosted by the Center for However, the notion that Western countries are absent from UN operations is International Peace Operations (ZIF) partially misleading. The sixteen European countries represented at the Berlin with the support of the Directorate roundtable were contributing 5,492 uniformed personnel—around 6 percent for Strategic Affairs of the French of total uniformed contributions to UN peace operations. European personnel Ministry of Defense and the Federal are largely concentrated in UN operations in the Middle East; only 383 from Foreign Office of Germany. With the this group are deployed to the six UN missions in sub-Saharan Africa (0.5 impending NATO withdrawal from percent of the total uniformed peacekeeping personnel in that region). Afghanistan as a backdrop, the European countries contribute relatively low numbers of police, but those discussion focused on future contributors are spread across all UN operations. European commitments to UN At present, the UN has little problem finding adequate numbers of troops, peacekeeping, the strategic security police, and observers to staff its operations. However, the capabilities of UN context, current developments and contingents are inconsistent due to a number of factors, including differences challenges in UN peacekeeping, UN in training, leadership, and equipment. In many of its largest and most command and control, partnership challenging operations, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, UN peacekeeping arrangements, and mutual needs still lacks an array of critical enablers, which significantly limits its operational and opportunities in the way capabilities and negatively affects the implementation of mission mandates. At forward. the same time, personnel may lack the specialized skills required to effectively This meeting note reflects the implement complex mandates. For example, the role of UN Police has moved rapporteurs’ interpretation of the far beyond the monitoring of host-state police toward more specialized roundtable discussion and not functions, such as restructuring police organizations or mentoring host-state necessarily the views of all other police. The UN continues to rely on member states, including European participants. IPI owes a debt of countries, to identify, prepare, and deploy personnel with the appropriate skills gratitude to its generous donors and expertise to deliver on diverse mandates. who make publications like this one Thus, the need for specialized military and police contributions to UN peace possible. operations and skilled personnel is a pressing concern. At the same time, the demands that contemporary peace operations place on contributing countries 2 have become increasingly challenging. Existing defining the aims of intervention and cleverer in contributors and the UN Secretariat have spending money. assembled an impressive inventory of lessons Conflict prevention and diplomacy remain key learned, guidance, and best practices, yet the need aspects of European countries’ foreign and defense for continued dialogue, reflection, and improve - policies, while the promotion of the rule of law is ment remains. commonly recognized as a core competence of In its most recent reports, the Special Committee European (civilian and police) crisis management. on Peacekeeping Operations has continued to “Europe’s interest,” in the words of one roundtable emphasize the need to broaden the base of troop- participant, “is in a just international order that and police-contributing countries, recommending emphasizes the responsibilities of nations to the that “coordinated initiatives be taken to reach out to rule of law; freedom of communications; access new contributors, that former and existing contrib - [for] all to sea, air, space, and cyberspace; and the utors be encouraged to contribute further and that resolution of disputes without the use of force.” support to emerging contributors be provided.” 1 Such a vision of the international order, however, is The Being a Peacekeeper series—a joint initiative currently confronted by the reality of complex and of the International Peace Institute (IPI) and the violent conflict just beyond Europe’s borders. Pearson Centre—is a response, in part, to that Vacuums of state authority have allowed for the recommendation. It seeks to facilitate networking resurgence of conflict and extremism, leading to an at a regional level among experienced contributors “arc of crises” from Kandahar to Dakar. and countries considering becoming more actively UN peacekeeping continues to be only one engaged in peacekeeping. It also provides a forum element of European countries’ crisis-management for interaction among peacekeeping contributors tools, albeit an important one. For Europeans, the and other key elements in the UN peacekeeping UN remains the primary framework for system, such as the Department of Peacekeeping maintaining international order based on interna - Operations (DPKO), the Department of Field tional human rights and the rule of law—despite Support (DFS), interested member states, and the the ongoing polarization among the permanent policy research community. members of the Security Council over questions The Berlin roundtable was held under the such as Syria. Given the complexity of the conflicts Chatham House rule of nonattribution. The on its periphery and the finite set of available following is a summary of the key themes that resources, increased collaboration with regional emerged during the discussions. organizations will be a critical element in Europe’s attempts to address such challenges. On Syria, in Strategic Security Context: particular, both the UN and the EU should work together now, it was said, to be ready to do their New Realities and Emerging part when the civil war eventually ends. The Threats situation in Mali is another current threat to Europe that must be addressed, but not without the cooper - The available supply of European peacekeeping ation of the other key regional actors, such as the capabilities might soon increase as NATO troop Economic Community of West African States numbers decline in Afghanistan. At the same time, (ECOWAS). European governments continue to struggle with In addition to partnering with regional and other the implications of the global economic crisis. entities, European countries also realize the need to Reductions in defense spending have been maintain their own capabilities for high-intensity accompanied in some countries by strategic defense operations, especially as the United States begins to reviews to define future threats, challenges, focus on other parts of the world, such as Asia- objectives, and capabilities. The goal of these Pacific. In this light, it was noted that during peace reviews is to be more precise and consistent in time, UN peace operations provide real-world 1 United Nations, Report of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations: 2010 Substantive Session , UN Doc. A/64/19, 2010, para. 75. ENHANCING EUROPEAN MILITARY 3 opportunities for the training and skill develop - composition of peace operations has also ment of European militaries and police, particularly undergone a transformation, as civilian and with regard to offering young officers command policing components of multidimensional experience. However, European governments must operations have steadily increased in size and, at the be honest about the fact that lengthy deployments same time, their scope of work has broadened. to Afghanistan have created a considerable degree COMMAND-AND-CONTROL of fatigue, leaving less public appetite for other ARRANGEMENTS prolonged international engagements. Since the failures of the mid-1990s, the UN has Integrated regional security policy in Europe, worked to strengthen and clarify its command-and- although more advanced than anywhere else, is still control arrangements, one of the major issues of a work in progress. More than ten years after its concern cited by the UN’s European critics. Indeed, founding, the Common Security and Defense few seem to have a good understanding of the Policy (CSDP) is still struggling with its procedures system. In a recent survey of member states and structures, and with a lack of consensus on conducted by DPKO, two-thirds of member states what the CSDP should—and should not—aim to responded that the UN’s command-and-control deliver. As the EU intensifies its efforts to arrangements are only “somewhat clear” to them. implement the Lisbon Treaty,

Load more