Australia initiatives in peacekeeping timely for the region

By A.K.P. Mochtan

JAKARTA (JP): A regular contributor to United Nation peacekeeping and multinational forces, Australia is at a new height of activity in the field of peacekeeping.

The first set of initiatives were rolled out in 1993 through the organization of high-level international seminars to discuss the changing nature of peace support operations and the publications of a number of important documents that include Foreign Minister Senator Gareth Evans' thought-provoking book Cooperating for Peace and Minister for Defense Senator Robert Ray's Peacekeeping Policy: The Future of Australia Defense Force Role.

Following these, in March 1994, the Australia Defense Force Warfare Center's newly established Peacekeeping Center took another bold initiative by conducting a joint training program on the Planning And Management of Peacekeeping that was attended by defense personnel and civilian specialists from around the Asia- Pacific region.

The list of planned activities continues throughout this year. In May 1994, a high-level international conference is scheduled to review and take stock of the relatively successful, recently concluded, UN multi-dimensional peacekeeping operation in Cambodia. Initiative for the conference has come directly from Lt. Gen. John Sanderson, the former, highly respected, Force Commander of UNTAC.

Later in the year, in November 1994, the Peacekeeping Center is set to hold a second international training seminar involving more regional participants.

Meanwhile, preparation and coordination in other related areas and among ministries are also progressing. These include securing the representation and dispatching of military attaches and other defense officers to the Australian Permanent Mission and appropriate offices at the UN Headquarters in New York, as well as designating a specific desk for Peacekeeping Affairs at the Foreign Ministry.

At the basis of these series of initiatives and activities has been Australia's all-time high commitment and direct participation in peacekeeping and multinational operations. The country's first endeavor dates back to as early as 1947, as part of the United Nations Consular Commission to Indonesia.

The participation has steadily increased ever since and by the 1992-1993 period reached a record level where a substantive number of Australian troops, observers and military advisers were well spread out in the world's numerous trouble spots, such as the Middle East, Western Sahara, Somalia, Iraq, Cambodia and Bosnia.

Australia's initiatives are undoubtedly important not only for the UN, but also to the other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

While the active participation and contributions made by the regular Asia-Pacific troop contributing countries like Fiji, Indonesia and Malaysia have always been recognized, and recently also those of New Zealand, Thailand, Philippines, and Japan, it is the Australian initiatives that -- for the first time -- brought this wealth of regional experience and expertise into one common forum.

This is not to suggest that the formation of Regional (Asia- Pacific) Peacekeeping Forces is now on the offing. Although the idea has been discussed and has generated some interest among some members of the ASEAN countries, it is still too early to expect that the establishment of a more permanent structure and arrangement for such a purpose will be readily acceptable at this stage.

While regional-wide dialogs on defense and security issues are gradually emerging, some ASEAN defense officials are still showing strong reservations toward any attempt to institutionalize a full, multilateral, defense and military cooperation.

Despite the urgings of the Security Council and the UN secretary-general to regional organizations to take a more active role in peacekeeping, the round of meetings dedicated to discussing this subject so far indicate that more time is needed before ASEAN will be able to reach a consensus on any concrete plan of action commensurate to its own priorities and capabilities.

Apart from continuing to undertake preventive diplomacy, ASEAN has yet to formulate the basic structure, arrangements and common procedure -- if applicable -- for UN peace support operations that involves the dispatching of joint military contingents or observers. To that end, the Australian initiative can serve as an important catalyst and help to accelerate ongoing processes and preparations.

Beyond the narrow scope of peacekeeping, the initiatives are also useful in shedding more light over Australia's overtures in international affairs.

Notwithstanding its location in the Asia Pacific region, there is still too little understanding and appreciation, as compared to the prevailing indifference, concerns and suspicions within the immediate neighbors' general population, toward Australia's intended role and involvement in regional and world affairs.

A consistent emphasis on peacekeeping contributes to elucidating the matter and promotes confidence building measures and processes.

Along this line, Australia's heightened activism in peacekeeping is also helpful in identifying the future direction towards which regional defense and security cooperation among the countries in the Asia-Pacific region may be heading or toward which direction it may be redefined.

This is especially important as the region is presently facing new strategic uncertainties and challenges that are rapidly unfolding due to the abrupt termination of the Cold War. The old security equations, in fact the whole paradigm itself, are no longer valid and the region is forced to resort to new arrangements, structures and modalities.

The unsettled disputes over some groups of islands in the South China Sea and the increasingly volatile situation in the Korean peninsula, for example, dictate that the countries in the region be more innovative and pro-active in trying to defuse the sources of tension in the region.

Within this context, joint endeavors in peacekeeping stand out as a promising option as this offers real and practical application, at the same time being non-threatening to others.

In light of all this, the initiatives put forward by the Australians are timely, relevant and highly commendable. The biggest problem to face may most likely come from its own enthusiasm.

It will have to resist rushing the idea and initiative too fast and too far ahead of its regional partners or risk unnecessary resistance due to the partners' fear of being dominated by the more prepared and experienced player.

The writer is an analyst at the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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