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Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management
Civilian Crisis Management
Stepping Up to the Plate:
Can Europe Score with Crisis Management?
Jan Hoekema, Netherlands MP with the Democrat
66 Party
(brief biography)
Washington, D.C., October 23, 2001
The EU has devoted quite some attention to the
military aspects of ESDP (European Security and Defense Policy),
including the availability in 2003 of a force of 60,000 men
who can deploy within one month for a period of at least a
year. This rapid intervention force is in all respects useful,
but equally important are the civilian aspects of crisis management
and crisis prevention.
The manning of civilian crisis-managers, such
as police, public administrators, mediators, diplomats, advisors,
etc. in certain phases of conflict can be extremely important.
In the past, the EU, and the OSCE for that matter, were sometimes
slow in bringing together the necessary numbers of verification
experts, monitors (elections, and so forth) and other civilians,
including ex-military, in a rapid manner. The failed Kosovo
Verification Mission at the end of 1998 is a case in point.
Also in Macedonia the international community
had difficulties providing the necessary numbers of observers
and monitors. Governments and NGOs should cooperate to bring
together, through data-bases and recruitment, stocks of readily
available civilian personnel to be deployed on short notice
in either post-conflict or pre-conflict regions and/or countries.
Cooperation between military and non-military (CIMIC) is particularly
useful, as well as an early insight into the required numbers
and/or expertise needed for such missions. Police are a first
priority, and the EU's stated intention to line up a sizeable
stock of police, both civil and military (Gendarmerie, Carabinieri),
is to be applauded.
The broad concept of security and the realization
that conflicts need to be addressed in a comprehensive strategy
require more urgent attention to these areas. NGOs have done
useful work and made useful suggestions for country- and/or
region-tailored expertise, and manpower and lacunae which
need to be filled. Centers for conflict prevention cooperate
more and more with one another and with governments. The presence
of civil observers can function as the eyes and ears of the
international community (e.g. Indonesia, Middle East) without
necessarily being a veiled peace-keeping force that would
not be acceptable for the parties concerned. However, the
security aspect need not be overlooked.
Civilian casualties could severely hurt the
concept of civilian crisis management. Protection and "rules
of the game" are important. Missions of MP's (for example,
the Parliamentarians for Global Action and a recent mission
to the Ivory Coast) are an interesting brand of this, especially
in situations where parliamentary work is blocked by a stalemate
between government parties and the opposition, as was the
case in Albania. In the Netherlands, funds are available to
stimulate these peace and conflict prevention activities,
which include the training of militaries in African countries,
assisting civil society in developing countries, and the support
of national or regional peace and reconciliation activities.
It is vital, however, to see to it that this dimension also
filters into 'high politics,' such as the EU's ESDP.
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