The QDDR Asks the Question: How Can the U.S. Do Better at Peacekeeping and Conflict Prevention?

From time to time, it's always good to take a step back and ask ourselves how we can do our jobs better, as individuals and as organizations. That's what the U.S. State Department did this week with the release of its first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, or QDDR. This 242-page document, entitled "Leading Through Civilian Power," assesses what State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are doing right and where there is room for improvement in the areas of diplomacy and development.

In the words of Secretary of State Clinton in her opening letter:

"New actors, good and bad, have the power to shape international affairs like never before. The challenges we face-nuclear proliferation, global pandemics, climate change, terrorism-are more complex than ever."

Citizens for Global Solutions is heartened to see that an entire chapter of the QDDR has been devoted to peacekeeping and conflict prevention. Under the heading "Preventing and Responding to Crisis, Conflict and Instability," the QDDR begins by asserting the need for the United States "to substantially improve our ability to address the crises and conflicts associated with state weakness, instability, and disasters, and to support stability and reconstruction following conflict." The QDDR makes special mention of the concept of Responsibility to Protect (R2P), stating that "situations that threaten genocide or other mass atrocities warrant very high priority for prevention."

The QDDR is frank about past U.S. failures in conflict prevention. "...Too often, our reaction has been both post hoc and ad hoc. We have not defined and resourced the problems of conflict and crisis as a central mission of our civilian toolkit....We have responded to successive events without learning lessons and making appropriate institutional changes...." In addition, it acknowledges that the U.S. has "coordinate(d) poorly with multilateral institutions, foreign governments, and nongovernmental partners" in dealing with international conflicts and crises.

So, how does the State Department plan to improve its efforts moving forward? Among other things, the QDDR proposes to:

• Create a new position of Undersecretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, as well as a new Bureau for Crisis and Stabilization Operations (in place of the current S/CRS structure);
• Integrate women into conflict prevention and response efforts;
• Expand the contributions of international partners by building their foreign policing and military capacities for crisis and conflict operations;
• Support reforms to modernize and improve United Nations peacekeeping operations; and
• Improve cooperation with allies and multilateral organizations, particularly the U.N.

All of this introspection in Foggy Bottom appears to be good news for the future of civilian protection, genocide prevention, and peacekeeping. CGS is pleased that the first QDDR has focused on these issues and given them the attention they deserve, particularly as new challenges-for example, the potential for violence following the upcoming Sudan referendum on independence in January-loom on the horizon.

As a CGS staff member and a global citizen, I'm happy that the QDDR addresses so many important issues that I spend my days working on, and I hope that the Obama administration will push hard to implement the QDDR's admirable goals in the months ahead. I'm also hopeful that Congress will do its part by adequately funding the International Affairs budget. We at CGS will continue to advocate for genocide prevention, civilian protection efforts, and strong State Department funding in the new year.

To read the full QDDR, click here. For the executive summary, click here.