Peacekeeping Office May Shut Down

WASHINGTON – The Army is considering closing its Peacekeeping Institute, the only arm of the military devoted entirely to preparing for and analyzing U.S. peacekeeping missions around the globe.

"My concern is, what message does this send to the world?" Col. George Oliver, director of the institute, said in a telephone interview Monday. "It's going to say that the U.S. military doesn't really care about peacekeeping."

The institute was created in July 1993 to guide the Army's thinking on how to conduct peacekeeping, to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of specific missions and to promote Army exchanges with international organizations involved in peace operations.

Just three months after its creation, a peacekeeping effort in Somalia that had evolved into a manhunt turned suddenly bloody on the streets of Mogadishu. Two Army Black Hawk helicopters were shot down, 18 U.S. soldiers were killed and the Clinton administration quickly ended the mission.

Since then the U.S. military has taken on other, more successful missions to keep the peace in Bosnia and Kosovo. Peacekeeping has been a major focus of Army operations over much of the past decade – to the detriment, some argue, of soldiers' training for combat operations.

The possibility of closing the Peacekeeping Institute does not mean the Army would stop doing peacekeeping missions. But in the view of those who want to keep it open, eliminating the institute would undercut the United States' ability to contribute to stability in the Balkans and elsewhere in the world.

"It is the Army's job to fight and win the nation's wars, but it is the nation's job to build and maintain stable and lasting peace," Kenneth Bacon, president of Refugees International, wrote in a letter last week to Army Secretary Thomas White.

Bacon, a former assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, said the institute's work has contributed to the success of peacekeeping in Bosnia and Kosovo by making the Army better prepared for the missions.

Oliver said the possibility of closing down the Peacekeeping Institute, with a staff of 10 people and a yearly budget of about $200,000, was raised as part of a broader Army effort to reduce staff at the Army War College, where the institute resides with other support offices such as the Military History Institute.

No final decision has been made, Army officials said.

The contemplated reductions stem from an effort by White to move more uniformed personnel out of desk jobs and into the field – a goal shared by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who says the military is doing too many tasks not directly related to preparing for war.

Rumsfeld has been outspoken about his reluctance to get the military involved in more peacekeeping. He has said the peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo, while succeeding at preventing a return to civil war, are inadvertently creating an unhealthy dependence by the host countries on foreign troops.

With that view in mind, Rumsfeld has argued that in Afghanistan it would be better for the Afghans to use their own armed forces to keep the peace, rather than rely on U.S. or other foreign armies. To enable Afghanistan to develop a viable national army, Rumsfeld has spoken favorably of using U.S. troops to train the Afghans so that in the long run they can provide their own security.

Oliver, the Peacekeeping Institute's director, said in the telephone interview that while he's concerned about losing the institute he will support whatever decision is made.

"I personally believe that eliminating this institute will hurt the Army in the long run and will hurt the nation in the long run," he said.

Some in Congress share his view.

In a letter to White last week, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., and Rep. James Leach, R-Iowa, wrote that the Peacekeeping Institute was an "invaluable education and training resource" for the Army.

"Our present involvement in Afghanistan illustrates the need for robust documentation, lessons learned and institutional memory in the emerging field of peace operations," they wrote.