[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 185 (Thursday, December 10, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12907-S12908]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    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

[[Page S12908]]

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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