Photo By Taikeila Dale | Members from U.S. Army Central, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the U.S. Army War...... read more read more
Subscribe
CARLISLE, Pa. – U.S. Central Command and U.S. Army Central co-hosted their first Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Symposium March 31- April 4, 2014, with military leaders associated with peacekeeping operations from partner nations in the U.S. Central Command area of operations.
Thirty-one officers from nine partner nations attended the five-day symposium, in addition to Army National Guard officers from State Partnership Program states of Arizona, Mississippi, Montana and Virginia. Officers were exposed to peacekeeping and stability concepts and doctrine, military training and education programs, and exchanged lessons learned in past peacekeeping operations.
“I hope we can all learn from each other’s successes and failures, and I look forward to hearing from other nations represented at this symposium about experiences supporting peacekeeping operations and learning from those experiences,” said Col. Bryan Groves, USARCENT chief of civil military operations.
Representatives from the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, the U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, United States Institute for Peace, Alliance for Peace and U.S. Central Command Global Peace Operations Initiative gave presentations during the symposium.
The purpose of this event was to support the CENTCOM Theater Security Cooperation Strategy. The symposium recognized and encouraged partner nations’ participation in the United Nations and regional peacekeeping operations.
“Some of our partners have been participating in UN peacekeeping for decades and some partners, who are currently developing a peacekeeping capacity, are anxious to get their first mission,” said Joseph Althouse, CENTCOM Global Peace Operations Initiative manager.
“Relationships have been made here and have the potential to lead to cooperation on a peacekeeping operation.”
Attendees discussed and shared common planning and execution issues concerning peacekeeping and stability operations, providing an opportunity to share their experiences and gain knowledge from each other.
Pakistan, one of six partner nations that gave briefings on their nation’s peacekeeping efforts during the symposium, briefed its role as the leading troop contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, its involvement in the rescue of U.S. Rangers in Mogadishu in 1993, and the inauguration of its own Center for International Peace and Stability in 2013. Since its first peacekeeping operations in the Congo in 1960, Pakistan has provided more than 150,000 soldiers to serve as peacekeepers on 41 different UN peacekeeping operations and has treated more than a million civilians in its deployed military hospitals, as part of its contributions to peacekeeping operations.
“This symposium provided us an opportunity to share our feelings, our experiences with the other members, and we have gained some things which we can contribute once we go back,” said Pakistani Col. Moeen Ud Din, peacekeeping cell analyst. “We have learned a lot from the U.S. Army and the other members who have participated in this symposium.”
A number of countries in attendance said they appreciated the U.S. Army hosting the symposium.
“Throughout our participation in the symposium, we have understood the great efforts undertaken by the United States in peacekeeping operations all over the world,” said a foreign officer whose country is one of the top contributors to UN peacekeeping operations. “We also realize that achieving world peace and security is not the responsibility of only one country, but is the duty of the international community, as a whole.”
U.S. Central Command and U.S. Army Central plan to co-host additional symposiums of this kind in the future.
“Peacekeeping and stability operations are, and will continue to be, an integral part of operations conducted by partner nations in the CENTCOM area of operations,” said Pete Clymer, USARCENT deputy branch chief of the Arabian Peninsula and Levant Branch, international military affairs. “It is a capability that lends itself to developing capacities desired in partner nations, as well as increasing their ability to operate with U.S. forces in other contingency operations.”
| Date Taken: | 04.04.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 04.08.2014 16:25 |
| Story ID: | 124981 |
| Location: | CARLISLE, PA, US |
| Web Views: | 138 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Partners gather to keep the ‘peace’ in peacekeeping operations, by MAJ Fredrick Williams, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT