Australia initiatives in peacekeeping timely for the region
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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