PRESS RELEASE

16 July 1999

Peacekeeping Not NATO's Job, Says Cohen

New Initiatives for Non-Military Intervention Announced

The international community has failed to grasp that many of the tasks performed now by K-FOR in Kosovo, and before that in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, are simply not suitable for a military force. US Defense Secretary William Cohen, speaking in Osloon July 10, said, "Peacekeeping is not a primary mission, certainly of the US forces, and I suspect that is the case for many of the other NATO countries as well. Peacekeeping involves a different type of training, and capabilities." Professional soldiers should not be expected to adopt policing, administrative and judicial roles whilst grappling with huge population flows, de-mining and aid distribution.

There is an urgent need for the establishment of permanent ‘Civilian Intervention Units’ (CIUs), a non-military body that could fulfil the roles for which the military are unsuited. BASIC proposed the formation of CIUs in its report "A Risk Reduction Strategy for NATO," which contains a detailed description of the CIU concept. CIUs should be set up to assist K-FOR and its sister missions around the world by shouldering the burdens of ‘soft security’ tasks, such as civil administration, policing and election supervision. They should be under the aegis of the UN and be in a position to deploy rapidly in post-crises situations around the globe.

EU leaders meeting at the Cologne Summit showed signs of taking seriously the aftermath of the Kosovo war, and the need for a combined civil-military capability. The Summit agreed to examine "non-military crisis response tools… Deliberations might include the possibility of a stand-by capacity to pool national civil resources and expertise complementing other initiatives within the common foreign and security policy."

The British government announced on 25 June that it would make peacekeeping troops available to the UN, which could be deployed anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. The British contribution to the UN, according to Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, will also "include civilian police officers who are playing an increasingly important role in peacekeeping."

Finally, Cohen hinted that a permanent police-civilian force may be required. In Oslo he noted, "What we need to do is to have more police on call, ready to deploy to Kosovo, as they were required to be deployed into Bosnia; we need much more in the way of civil implementation than is currently taking place."

"Kosovo has again highlighted the urgent need to establish a permanent, well-trained and well-resourced civilian peacekeeping force. Current ad-hoc arrangements have been insufficient for years. Now it’s time to act," said Julianne Smith, senior analyst at BASIC.

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