In the Panchkhal Valley of Nepal, shadowed by the Himalaya Mountains, platoons of soldiers from 11 nations are being trained in peacekeeping tactics so that they can be ready to don the blue helmets of a UN peacekeeping mission.
This is not easy, because peacekeeping operations call for deep-seated changes in attitudes among soldiers who have been trained to use maximum force to defeat an enemy. In contrast, peacekeeping requires soldiers to apply only that force needed to separate adversaries and bring calm to a hostile situation.
Experienced peacekeepers have likened their work to police wading into a barroom brawl. First they separate the fighters, then stand watch to keep them apart, and finally seek to bring permanent calm to everyone affected.
For soldiers, this means learning and executing new rules of engagement, not an easy task when they have been trained to kill enemies. In a successful peacemaking and peacekeeping operation, there are no enemies and no one gets hurt.
Sergeant Major Gerald Cornell of the US Army, who has been training peacekeepers for five years, said: “Soldiers are often asked to do things for which we are not prepared. So we have to be flexible. We can do any mission we are given, but it is better if we are prepared for it.”
The sergeant major, who is assigned to the US Pacific Command headquarters in Honolulu, Haiwaii, was speaking in a telephone call from the Panchkhal Valley.
“We train trainers” who then go home to train other soldiers in peacekeeping, he said, adding that restraint in the use of force was taught in every aspect of the course in Nepal.
The platoons of 30 to 35 soldiers being trained in the two-week exercise in the Panchkhal Valley came from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Paraguay and Rwanda. Instruction is in English, with each platoon having brought translators with them. Working with translators was among the learning points in peacekeeping, Cornell said.
Nepal, land of the famed Gurkha warriors, has had decades of blue helmet experience, while Mongolia, home of the 13th-century conqueror Genghis Khan, is relatively new to such operations. The same is true of Japan, long reluctant to be involved in military operations abroad after its devastating defeat in World War II.
The training centers hold field exercises in which civilians, played by Nepalese citizens, need to be protected. In the use of force, peacekeepers are trained to react, not to initiate, and apply only enough force to stop hostilities. In each drill, respect for basic human rights is emphasized.
Some drills are modifications of standard military tactics — guards in checkpoints examining documents, perhaps searching for weapons. Troops practice running convoys in which local customs are observed. Food and medicine are distributed fairly with troops preventing mobs from overrunning supply points.
This field exercise was preceded by a seminar on peacekeeping for officers from 10 nations in the Nepalese army headquarters in Kathmandu, the capital. Lieutenant General Netra Bahadur Thapa, chief of staff, said at the seminar: “UN peacekeepers are facing very complex challenges and are often required to implement intricate mandates.”
In particular, “protection of civilians, [preventing] sex and gender-based violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, and human securities are all matters of grave concern for the UN,” the general said.
For the US, training for peacekeeping can be divided into two phases. From 2005 through 2009, it did much of the training, both of US and foreign soldiers. In that period, 87,000 soldiers were trained, 77,000 of which were African.
From 2010 through to 2014, under the US State Department’s Global Peace Operations Initiative, the US has been supporting other nations that are engaged in preparing for peacekeeping missions. In this case, Americans have been assisting the Nepalese.
As of the beginning of the year, 14 UN peacekeeping operations were under way, mostly in Africa the UN said. Others were posted in India, Pakistan, Lebanon and Kosovo.
About 78,000 soldiers, 16,800 civilians, 12,500 police officers and 1,800 military observers have been deployed in hopes of keeping the peace.
Richard Halloran is a commentator in Hawaii.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
The past few months have seen tremendous strides in India’s journey to develop a vibrant semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. The nation’s established prowess in information technology (IT) has earned it much-needed revenue and prestige across the globe. Now, through the convergence of engineering talent, supportive government policies, an expanding market and technologically adaptive entrepreneurship, India is striving to become part of global electronics and semiconductor supply chains. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of “Make in India” and “Design in India” has been the guiding force behind the government’s incentive schemes that span skilling, design, fabrication, assembly, testing and packaging, and