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“FUNDING FOR PEACEKEEPER TRAINING” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S12907-S12908 on Dec. 10, 2009.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
FUNDING FOR PEACEKEEPER TRAINING
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I want to speak today in favor of the administration's funding request for the Global Peace Operations Initiative and one of its important components, the Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance Program, for which the bill before the Senate, the fiscal year 2010 State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill, includes $96.8 million in funding. These programs, which I have supported in their various forms for more than a decade, are vital tools in helping the United States and nations around the world, but especially in Africa, to contain crises, violence and instability that threaten not only other nations, but also our own.
The Global Peace Operations Initiative, or GPOI, began in fiscal year 2005 as an effort to address worrisome gaps in the world community's ability to support, equip, and sustain a growing number of peacekeeping operations. This initiative comprised, in part, the fulfillment of a U.S. pledge at the June 2004 G-8 summit meeting at Sea Island, Georgia, to train 75,000 new peacekeepers. The GPOI built on and incorporated the Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance Program, or ACOTA, which has trained African peacekeepers since 1997. The objective of these programs is to train and equip military units to deploy to peacekeeping operations, many of them in Africa. In addition, GPOI supports efforts to train special ``gendarme'' police units to participate in peacekeeping operations.
Why are these programs so important? I think we all recognize that the world has become a more challenging and less stable place, but we may not recognize just how pronounced regional security problems have become. We do not need to look further than the two largest United Nations peacekeeping operations, in Darfur, Sudan, and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Both of these missions were authorized in response to complex regional conflicts. The United Nations, which oversees the majority of peacekeeping operations worldwide, reports that more than 100,000 peacekeepers and police personnel are deployed on peacekeeping operations--a sevenfold increase since 1999. Those troops are deployed in 17 separate operations, nearly half of which are on the African continent.
Through ACOTA and GPOI, the United States has helped to meet the growing demand for peacekeeping personnel. Since its start in 2005 through the end of fiscal year 2009, GPOI has provided training for nearly 87,000 personnel representing more than 50 nations. Appropriately, given the security challenges in Africa, ACOTA is GPOI's biggest initiative. Since 2005, more than 77,000 personnel from about two dozen African nations have received training through the initiative, and almost 14,000 more have received training under ACOTA through other funding sources. To make these numbers more significant, on average, 90 percent of units trained under ACOTA have deployed between 2005 and 2009.
GPOI provides partner nations with the training and equipment they need to perform peacekeeping missions through the UN or regional groups such as the African Union. This training is broad, and appropriately focuses on peacekeeping-specific tasks such as how to operate checkpoints and convoys, maintaining peace by safely disarming potential combatants, protecting refugees and internally displaced persons, developing and following appropriate rules of engagement, and, in some cases, peacemaking operations.
According to a report by the Department of State Inspector General, GPOI training through ACOTA ``is a win-win situation in which minimal numbers of U.S. military troops are involved, African professionalism and capacity are built up, and the participating African troops are rewarded well when deployed.'' Significantly, the IG report states
``that there have been minimal disciplinary problems and no ACOTA trained troops have been cited for atrocities or notable human rights abuses,'' an important sign that the emphasis on adherence to human rights standards and following the UN's rules of engagement has paid off.
The bill before the Senate, the State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill, includes funding for the administration's request of $96.8 million in funding for GPOI in fiscal year 2010. All of this funding is contained in the peacekeeping operations, or PKO, account of the bill. Based on past practice and the demand for peacekeeping in Africa, the Department of State will likely allocate more than half of this funding to ACOTA. Nearly $100 million is a substantial commitment of taxpayer dollars. But the price of failing to fund these important efforts would be far higher.
Our military leaders are particularly supportive of such efforts, with good reason. Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, believes the U.S. commitment to aid the peacekeeping efforts of other nations is ``extremely important and cost effective in comparison to unilateral operations these peacekeepers help promote stability and help reduce the risks that major U.S. military interventions may be required to restore stability in a country or region. Therefore, the success of these operations is very much in our national interest.''
I agree with Admiral Mullen. Programs such as GPOI are important not only because they help alleviate suffering around the globe--which they surely do--but also because they are a cost-effective way of managing U.S. security interests.
I am especially pleased that the administration intends to concentrate going forward on strengthening the capability of partner nations to train their own peacekeeping forces. This ``train the trainers'' approach multiplies the impact of U.S. efforts by giving partner nations the ability to sustain their own peacekeeping efforts. Using this model, the State Department plans to assist in the training and equipping of more than 240,000 peacekeepers over the next 5 years. The other focus will be on growing the planning and operational capability of the regional security organizations on the African continent.
There are other steps we should take to make these vital programs more effective, particularly in Africa. Outside that continent, the U.S. military's Geographic Combatant Commands are responsible for much of the day-to-day management of GPOI programs, including contract management. In Africa, however, those tasks have been performed by contractors working for the State Department's Bureau of African Affairs. With the stand-up of U.S. Africa Command, AFRICOM, in 2008, there is now a Combatant Command in place that could take over the same types of management duties performed elsewhere by its sister commands. I believe the Departments of State and Defense should explore whether such arrangements are advisable. Given the State Department's deep reliance on contractor personnel to manage the ACOTA program and AFRICOM's unique interagency command structure, I believe AFRICOM ought to be given a more significant role in the day-to-day execution of this critical program. Meanwhile, both departments should make efforts to ensure close cooperation between the State Department and AFRICOM personnel so that the taxpayers and partner nations see the maximum bang for the buck because they are a cost-effective way of managing U.S. security interests and supporting U.N. peacekeeping while reserving U.S. troops for other operations.
Having successfully completed the first 5-year phase, GPOI is entering a new phase. I urge my colleagues to support fully the administration's funding request for GPOI. With this money, we can help contain violence and chaos in many of the world's most troubled places. We can reduce the chance for such instability to create direct and immediate threats to our own security. We can enhance the ability of partner nations to maintain the peace in their own sectors of the globe. And we can accomplish all these things with a relatively modest amount of money--an investment with a substantial return, in both human and financial terms.
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