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The conclusions reached by the participants, as presented in as out-brief on the final day of the seminar-game, are summarized below.

Training

Asked to identify the essential elements of training, the syndicates focused on aspects that they felt were both universal and not necessarily effective today. Comprehensive training is required for all the components of a mission, including the political, humanitarian, police and military. Each component should produce its own training plans; however at some point integration must take place to generate understanding of the mission mandate and the roles each component will play within it. The priorities and emphasis of the training may be different for the various components and must deal with the specific tasks each will perform on the ground.

There are some universal requirements that all components must understand - the mandate, roles of the other components, the United Nations structure and processes, the mission area, an understanding of the conflict, cultural and related issues and the essential elements of International Humanitarian and Human Rights laws. The military is not exempt from these aspects and must prepare soldiers at all levels.

Multiple levels of training are essential and includes leadership at all levels. Leader training and preparation is often excluded based on the assumption that they will direct the training of their subordinates and therefore will learn in the process. Ignored in this conclusion is that leadership functions and roles in peace operations are fundamentally different in scope and levels of performance. Leaders must be fully cognizant of the roles their subordinates play; however their skill sets lie in different domains and training must be planned and executed to meet these requirements.

The key to success in improving the quality of training is the development and adoption of standards. Training standards provide the benchmarks against which the readiness of soldiers and civilians can be measured performance of units and organizations gauged. Training standards for military, police and civilian components need to be developed by each Nation, who has the responsibility for the preparation of their participants for peace operations. The United Nations must provide sufficient guidance for these training standards to be developed.

Improving political will in the region is considered essential to generating improved training capacity. The development of national and regional centers and mobile training assistance teams would greatly improve existing capacities and generate interoperability. Nations that train together will operate together more effectively

Mission Requirements

The planning of peace operations will be improved if the planners understand some of the key constraints and issues early. The first is that the mission may not be able to accomplish all the direct and implied tasks imposed by the mandate within the limited time frame established. Realistic assessments must be made in regard to what is achievable and what will be continuing past the imposed mission end date. Establishing priorities is the key to managing these operational issues and ensuring that the political direction understands that not all tasks can be completed and that appropriate mandate extensions may need to be considered.

Military planners are sometimes surprised that achieving the political aspects of the mission may be most important and that military operations may need to support these political objectives. The military mission may also need to change to support other component requirements. Planning therefore cannot be accomplished in isolation and bringing in staff from the other mission components needs to done as early as possible. Consensus planning becomes an important imperative to ensure that integration of effort occurs.

Understanding what are the legitimate tasks for each of the components is also crucial. The military will have prime responsibilities related to the security aspects of the mission and these are extended to all the components; however the military may have additional responsibilities assigned to assist the components. Often the operative task is to assist or support the other components. For example, when the humanitarians request assistance from the military for the development of a new IDP camp, the legitimate tasks could include assistance with site selection, developing access for vehicles, basic sanitation facilities and emergency water supply.

Cooperation and coordination are critical to success and mechanisms need to be established early between the components. The planning process requires continuous coordination, as do the political, military and humanitarian military interface. The commander has some tools available to assist these processes including the CMOC and CIMIC structures.

End state and transition are also critical aspects that need to be evaluated on a continuous basis. Experts in appropriate fields need to be recruited to analyze requirements on a continuous basis. End states for each of the components will be different and transition for one component may transfer responsibilities to other components. The identification of key transition strategies is essential as well as developing measures of effectiveness that can be used as tools to determine end states.

Understanding the use of force and the implications of the Chapter VI / VII policy is also necessary. Rules of Engagement (ROE) are the Commander's tool to implement the use of force policy and do not solve all of the problems associated with use of force issues. Clear understanding and preparation is the key for commanders and troops deployed on peace operations.

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