Launch of the Peacekeeping Report “From Aspiration to Implementation”

Event Description

Despite fielding a very large military, the United States ranked about 60th among UN member states in the personnel it contributed to UN peacekeeping, one speaker at the launch said. On Wednesday 19 October 2011, Citizens for Global Solutions launched its report U.S. Engagement in International Peacekeeping: From Aspiration to Implementation at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, as a member of the Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping. The recording above is Bob Enholm’s opening; the other remarks are listed below.

Officials and advocates who responded backed the report’s recommendations: pay peacekeeping dues in full and repeal the legal cap on the U.S. share, raise the number of U.S. police and military personnel serving with UN missions, support a larger UN standing police capacity, recruit more women, and offer military backup over the horizon. Several speakers noted that UN peacekeeping costs far less than U.S. military operations, and Victoria Holt, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, said the report’s analysis and policy ideas help the administration.

Speakers

Bob Enholm, Executive Vice President, Citizens for Global Solutions; Victoria Holt, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State; Peter Yeo, Better World Campaign; Ambassador Nancy Soderberg; Ariela Blätter; Don Kraus, CEO, Citizens for Global Solutions.

Recordings

• Opening Bob Enholm

  Enholm recalled the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to UN peacekeepers and Secretary-General Pérez de Cuéllar’s words about forces used to prevent conflict rather than wage war, a vision he said still inspires the report.

• Women in peacekeeping Victoria Holt

  Holt said the UN’s aim of raising the number of women among its leaders, civilian police and military peacekeepers is a priority that the United States shares.

• UN funding Victoria Holt

  Holt said the work depends on the United States paying its full UN assessments and on the administration seeking and receiving funding for peace operations and police training.

• On CGS Victoria Holt

  Holt thanked Citizens for Global Solutions for spearheading the report and said its analysis and policy ideas help the administration.

• UN reform Peter Yeo

  Yeo said advocates for UN funding must also press for efficiency, pointing to the UN’s five-year global field support strategy, which is cutting spending on items such as aircraft leases and fuel.

• UN funding and peacekeeping Peter Yeo

  Yeo argued that peacekeeping is both effective and cost effective, citing a RAND study in which seven of eight UN-led missions kept the peace against four of eight U.S.-led ones, and urged paying dues on time and repealing the 25 percent cap.

• On the United Nations Nancy Soderberg

  Soderberg noted that the UN has about 120,000 personnel deployed against about 140,000 for the United States, said the United States pays about $2 billion a year toward a roughly $7 billion cost, and called walking away from the UN a mistake.

• On the report Nancy Soderberg

  Soderberg called the report a blueprint for where UN peacekeeping stands and needs to go, and said senior policymakers at the UN and in the U.S. government should read it.

• Peacekeeping deployment Nancy Soderberg

  Soderberg urged realistic mandates and a closing of the UN’s capability gap, noting that the United States had only 25 military personnel in UN missions, and backed regional training centers able to deploy up to 20,000 troops quickly.

• Women in peacekeeping Ariela Blätter

  Blätter said women make up about 4 percent of uniformed peacekeepers, urged the Defense Department to create incentives for women to serve, and pointed to Liberia and South Africa as examples of what women add and how to recruit them.

• The peacekeeping initiative Ariela Blätter

  Blätter urged reviving the 2009 presidential peacekeeping initiative so that words become more U.S. police, staff officers and troops in UN missions.

• Train and equip Don Kraus

  Kraus described the report’s call for U.S. help in training and equipping other countries’ peacekeepers, more U.S. personnel at UN headquarters and in the field, and military backup over the horizon, as the United States provided in Liberia in 2003.

• Police capacity Don Kraus

  Kraus traced the growth of UN police functions and the report’s call for the United States to help double the UN’s standing police capacity, now 41 officers in Brindisi, Italy, and at least triple its rule-of-law experts.

Policy Focus

U.S. engagement in and funding of United Nations peacekeeping. The speakers pressed for paying dues on time and in full and repealing the 25 percent legal cap, a larger U.S. contribution of police and military personnel, a stronger UN standing police and justice capacity, and a place for more women in peacekeeping.

See also: the 2012 panel on the same report with three Americans who served in UN missions.

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