U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
August 23, 2000
FACT SHEET
The Brahimi Report on UN Peacekeeping Reform
The Brahimi Report:
-- Is a major new study on UN Peace and Peacekeeping Operations
prepared by a panel of ten respected experts appointed by the UN
Secretary-General. The panel was led by Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi of
Algeria and included two experts from the United States.
-- Responds to concerns of many UN members - including the U.S. - that
the UN does not have adequate management and financial systems to
support the sharply increased number of peacekeeping operations and
peacekeepers now deployed.
-- Takes a critical look at past peacekeeping efforts to improve the
structure and management of UN response.
-- Encourages Member State willingness to provide political,
personnel, material, and financial support to UN peacekeeping
missions.
-- Clarifies what UN peacekeeping is trying to accomplish, what kinds
of forces are required, and what conditions might necessitate
different kinds of missions.
-- Makes recommendations to enhance the UN Department of Peacekeeping
Operations' (DPKO) capacity for completing its core mission of
performing integrated civilian and military planning and management of
multi-dimensional peace operations.
-- Aims to improve the UN's rapid deployment posture; strengthens the
surge capacity for planning, preparing and deploying missions.
-- Strives to achieve qualitative improvements in Department of
Peacekeeping Operations' management of UN Peacekeeping Operations
starting from concept development and extending through post conflict
peace-building and termination.
The Brahimi Report looks to be a serious step toward meaningful reform
of UN peacekeeping:
-- Peacekeeping must be fixed in order to be saved. The UN will
ultimately be judged by its peacekeeping scorecard. Maintenance of
international peace and security is a concept that has been
fundamental to the UN since its founding.
-- Secretary Albright and Ambassador Holbrooke have spoken clearly of
the mismatch between the UN's burgeoning peacekeeping roles - in
Kosovo, East Timor, Lebanon, Congo, Sierra Leone, and soon
Ethiopia/Eritrea - and its limited ability to plan for and manage
those operations.
-- Ambassador Holbrooke told the Congress April 11, 2000 that the UN's
Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) needs more staff,
strengthened planning capacity, streamlined logistical structure, more
flexible financing and the ability to move resources into the field in
real time."
-- Initial review of the report suggests that the drafters understood
the problems we and other UN members raised; for example, it addresses
recommendations of recent reports on Rwanda and Srebrenica, as well as
the emerging lessons from ongoing peacekeeping operations to include
Kosovo, East Timor and Sierra Leone.
-- It does NOT propose a standing UN military force, something the
Administration and Congress have opposed.
-- We and other UN members are reviewing the report's proposals now.
-- Improving peacekeeping will require the political will and cohesion
of the UN membership, as well as greater resources and a sounder and
more equitable financial base.
-- It does recognize the greater need for multi-disciplinary
approaches to peacekeeping, including civilian police interim
administration alongside traditional military functions.
UN Peacekeeping:
-- The U.S. participates in international peacekeeping because it
serves our national security interests.
-- UN peacekeeping nurtures new democracies, lowers the global tide of
refugees, and prevents small wars from growing into larger scale
conflicts with much higher costs in terms of lives and resources.
-- UN peacekeeping allows us to share the costs and the risks of
international security and offers US policymakers a range of options
in the face of emergencies outside US borders.
-- UN peacekeeping operations have also helped resolve longstanding
conflicts, such as those in El Salvador and Guatemala.
-- In order to fulfill these goals, UN peacekeeping must be as
effective and efficient as possible. That is why we support further
reform.
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
