Reports: NATO and EU Peacekeeping

During the last decade, peace operation partnerships between the United Nations (UN) and regional organizations have advanced considerably both in operational and institutional terms. With the growing involvement of regional organizations in the area of peacekeeping, coordination between the UN and its potential partners is important in order to avoid duplication or outright inter-organizational rivalry. Recognizing that institutionalised relations between the UN and emerging peacekeeping actors such as the European Union (EU), African Union (AU) and even NATO can lead to beneficial burdensharing and mutual reinforcement, organizations have made conscious efforts to move from ad-hoc cooperation to more permanent and predictable mechanisms. Effective peace operations partnerships depend on coherent and strategically structured relations at the inter-secretariat level: different organizational cultures, agendas and approaches need to be systematically integrated. Despite some progress in UN-EU, UN-AU and UN-NATO relations, significant challenges persist in designing, maintaining and improving interorganizational schemes for peace operations.

"There has been very little investigation by the U.S. Government into the strategic impact of contractors.  Yet contractors reduce the political capital necessary to commit U.S. forces to war, impact the legitimacy of a counterinsurgency effort, and reduce its perceived morality.  These factors attack the Nation's critical vulnerability in an irregular war - the political will of the American people." - Strategic Forum #260

The United States has hired record numbers of contractors to serve in the conflict zones of Iraq and Afghanistan but has not seriously examined their strategic impact.  There are clearly advantages to using contractors in conflict zones, but they have three inherent characteristics that have srious negative effects during counterinsurgency operations. 

As of March 31, 2010, the United States deployed 175,000 troops and 207,000 contractors in the war zones.  Contractors represented 50 percent of the Department of Defense (DOD) workforce in Iraq and 59 percent in Afghanistan.  These numbers include both armed and unarmed contractors.  The presence of contractors on the battlefield is obviously not a new phenomenon but has dramatically increased from the ratio of 1 contractor to 55 military personnel in Vietnam to 1:1 in the Iraq and 1.43:1 in Afghanistan.

In this new Strategic Forum, Dr. T.X. Hammes explores the question "Does using contractors in a conflict zone make strategic sense?"

In this paper, Ron Capps of Refugees International examines some existing security intervention capabilities, a few likely scenarios where they might be needed, and what the United States can do to help enhance existing and promote additional capacity. Capps uses the term "security intervention" to cover a range of activities including international peacekeeping, reconstruction and stability operations, and military intervention.  The paper can also be found on the Stanley Foundation's site here.