1. To develop multilateral, multifunctional, operational-level peace operations skills and

2. To gain insight into capacity building and training requirements in South Asia

It is anticipated that peace operations will become the primary method by which the nations of the world will respond to conflicts or humanitarian crises that threaten the peace and stability of other nations. While discussions by academics on the changing nature of sovereignty continue, inevitably a coalition of the willing will form to intercede, either at a regional level or more likely through a United Nations Security Council resolution.

While scenarios that operators face may vary significantly, it is recognized from more than four decades of peace keeping operations that certain factors will always be present in any mission. The missions will be multilateral, multifunctional and multidisciplinary and will operate under time and resource constraints. It is likely that the nature of the mission will change over its lifetime, transitioning from emergency to stabilization and finally to civilian control and withdrawal of forces. Throughout, the mission may be required to shift as changes occur on the ground and as political solutions are negotiated, requiring flexibility in command decisions, force composition, and so on.

As the number of peace operations missions has increased, the number of troop-contributing countries has risen dramatically. The turn of the century has witnessed new interest by many countries in Asia and the Pacific Islands in peace operations through the contributions of troops, expertise, equipment and other resources. The vote for independence by the East Timorese and the subsequent peace operation currently in progress has served as a catalyst.

LTG Muhammad Mustafizur Rahman provided opening remarks on behalf of the Bangladesh Army.

While the contribution of troops has been a mainstay of the policies of some governments, others have only recently considered the possi-bility. It has also become widely recognized that the skills and knowledge needed for successful deployment and functioning of peacekeepers in the field requires specialized education and training. For some nations with a long tradition of providing peacekeepers to UN missions, this realization came early, and national training centers or programs were established to meet these training requirements. Others are in the formative stages of developing a training program even as their political leadership grapples with the implications, merits and detriments for their nation when participating in a peace operation. The United Nations established a Peace Keeping Training Unit specifically to assist countries in obtaining the skills their defense forces, including civilian components, require for successful participation. Many countries with only very limited resources at their disposal also struggle with what priority to assign to the education and training of peacekeepers. For those countries that do participate, coordinating across functional, national, international, interagency and disci-plinary boundaries present even greater challenges and implicate the need for more integrated training.

Events leading up to the South Asia Peace Keeping Operations Gaming Seminar provided a basis of discussion on the issues of participation at the policy level and on issues of capacity and training requirements at the operational level. These events were the Asia Pacific Regional Senior Leadership Seminar (Manila, May 30 — June 2) and the South East Asia Peace Operations Symposium (Bangkok, July 10 — 14) and are part of the Asia Pacific Peace Operations Capacity Building Program. Concurrently, other peace operations education and training programs have progressed throughout the region, including bi-lateral and multi-lateral exercises from battalion to staff level. The next step in this series will further develop the principles uncovered at the South Asia Peace Operations Gaming Seminar through a similar gaming seminar to take place in early 2001, in preparation of the development of a major command post exercise.

For more information, visit the Center of Excellence website: http://coe-dmha.org