Past Events

Asia Pacific Peace Operations Capacity Building
Program Summary 2000 - 2003

Description
The goal of this program is to promote multinational engagement throughout countries in the Asia Pacific Region by facilitating a multinational dialogue on the nature of peace operations and by building peace operations capacities, primarily through information exchange and engagement activities.

Partners and Roles

  1. Center of Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (COE): Serves as the program administrator, program and content developer and supplier of subject matter experts, expert briefers and program documentation.
  2. United States Pacific Command (USPACOM): Co-sponsors events through the Asia Pacific Regional Initiative (APRI) and supplies U.S. military representation.
  3. Host nations: Collaborate in the design process, offer a secure and positive setting for the event and provide administrative support.
  4. The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO): Furnishes a modality for activities, facilitates impartial forum for open dialogue and contributes expertise.

Cooperative Engagement
Cooperation among organizations managing complimentary programs within the Asia-Pacific region promotes a unity of effort, improves efficiency, and reduces duplication of effort. Organizations with which COE cooperates on issues related to peace support missions and security issues include the Multinational Planning Augmentation Team, the Center for Civil-Military Relations, the Association of International Peacekeeping Training Centers, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, the Asia Pacific Area Network and the UN Training and Evaluation Service (TES is the training arm of UNDPKO). In addition, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees participate regularly.

Milestones
Several events have occurred that dynamically influence progress in the Asia Pacific Region, and affect the content and dialogue of the program:

  1. Establishment of national peacekeeping training centers or peacekeeping offices in Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Thailand, and Korea.
  2. Publication and dissemination of the Brahimi Report
  3. Shifting of the paradigm and themes of several major bi-lateral and multinational exercises, including Cobra Gold, SAGIP, Yama Sakura, Balikatan, and Tempest Express to include peace enforcement activities
  4. Execution of the United Nations Transitional Authority for East Timor (UNTAET) Mission.

Events to Date
Over the course of these events, the content moved from a focus on broad issue discussions at the leadership level to operational-level games guided by scenarios. The final capstone event was designed to culminate the efforts of all previous events by addressing key topics, and to determine the focus of the ongoing program for execution in fiscal year 2003. The events (including number of attendees in parentheses) to date include:

  1. Asia Pacific Regional Senior Leadership Seminar - (85) Philippines, May 00
  2. South East Asia Peace Operations Symposium - (70) Thailand, July 00
  3. South Asia Peace Keeping Gaming Seminar - (44) Bangladesh, September 00
  4. Asia Pacific Peacekeeping Seminar Game - (68) Malaysia, April 01
  5. South Asia Peace Operations Peacekeeping Seminar Game - (50) Nepal, February 02
  6. South East Asia Peace Keeping Gaming Seminar - (75) Indonesia, April 02
  7. North East Asia Peace Operations Peacekeeping Seminar Game - (45) Mongolia, June 02
  8. Standard Generic Training Modules Seminar - (54) Thailand, August 02*
  9. Peace Operations Special Issues and Lessons Learned Seminar - (59) Hawaii, September 02**
  10. Mission Command and Control South East Asia Single Issue Seminar - (42) Bangkok, December


* Executed by UNDPKO TES and co-funded by COE/USPACOM.
**This ÔcapstoneÕ seminar represents two events within the APRI accounting structure.

Results
34 countries participated in one or more events. Countries were invited to send three representatives, and recommended to send one each from the military, civil police and civilian (humanitarian or government) to mimic the broad categories of personnel represented in peace support missions. Host Countries were permitted additional representation.

Countries and number of events participated in are:

10 Events: Malaysia, Thailand
9 Events: Mongolia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, United States
8 Events: Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal
7 Events: Fiji, India, Japan, Tonga
6 Events: Mauritius, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Singapore
5 Events: China, Korea, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia
4 Events: Maldives, Canada, United Kingdom, Vanuatu
3 Events: Vietnam
1 Event: France, Germany, Jordan, Samoa, Sweden, Turkey

Observations

  • Most countries that have institutionalized their focus on peacekeeping (see Milestones #1 above) have attended a proportionately higher number of events. Their attendance coincides with increasing levels of interest to prepare their personnel, particularly their military personnel, to support peacekeeping missions.

  • After the first four events, participants identified as a high priority the need for more training. During this period, several countries moved further along in their level of commitment to build capacity for participating in peace operations by instituting peacekeeping training centers, taking advantage of centers of their neighbors, and so on. This activity has been encouraged by the success of Asia and Pacific Island nations in UNTAET and with the release and dissemination of the Brahimi Report and related documents.

  • Many of these actively engaged nations have taken advantage of the education and training opportunities offered through the Enhanced International Peacekeeping Capabilities (EIPC) program, funded by the US State Department.

  • To further their influence, nations have elected to assist in the development of training modules for use by troop contributing nations with the administrative assistance of UNDPKO TES.

  • Sub-regional cooperation (South Pacific Island nations, Southeast Asia, etc.) may be an efficient and effective approach.

Recommendations
  1. Increase the proportion of participants from government agencies, non-governmental response organizations and civilian police;
  2. Support efforts to develop exportable, integrated training packages;
  3. Support political and diplomatic approaches and initiatives to "close the loop" between policy, strategic, operational and tactical levels;
  4. Introduce more sophisticated methods of interaction and ways of capturing information and knowledge through applied learning technologies;
  5. Integrate lessons learned from past peace operations and make them accessible through the world wide web or other means;
  6. Address ways to support capacity-building efforts initiated from within countries in the region.

Resources
After Action Reports may be viewed at the Center of Excellence website (http://coe-dmha.org) or APAN (http://www.apan-info.net). Articles on events in the program series can be found in The Liaison (http://coe-dmha.org/liaison.htm) and the Asia Pacific Defense Forum (http://www.pacom.mil/forum/forum.htm)