Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 6, Number 1 – July/August, 2010

Carolyn McAskie.

CAROLYN McAskie, OC, is currently a Senior Fellow in the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. She previously served as Assistant Secretary General for Peacebuilding (2006−2008), Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of the U.N. Peacekeeping Operation in Burundi (2004−2006), as well as Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator at the U.N. Secretariat in New York (1999-2004), and Emergency Relief Coordinator (1999−2001). Ms. McAskie is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Director of Canadem and the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre.

JIPO: How can a peacekeeping operation proceed when there is no apparent peace to be kept?

McAskie: The concept of modern peacekeeping has changed so much that there is very rarely a peace to be kept. There is often a situation in countries where there is a combination of peaceful areas maybe in agreement with the government, but fighting still going on in other parts. Modern peacekeeping goes way beyond just patrolling the line of two parties who find a peace agreement. Modern peacekeeping forces now need to be prepared to work with the local authorities to stabilize parts of the country. You could say that most current operations fall into the category of where there is no peace to keep — so it is not unusual at all.

Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 5, Number 6- May/June 2010

Amb. Ryan C. Crocker (Ret.)

JIPO: Are the March 2010 parliamentary elections in Iraq a positive indicator of a successful democratic transition in the heart of the Middle East?

Amb. Crocker: The manner in which the elections were conducted is very encouraging. Violence was minimal and international observers have found no evidence of significant fraud. And most importantly, the Iraqis secured their own elections. When you look back to the previous elections at the end of 2005, you had 230,000 U.S. forces doing nothing but elections security. This time it was all Iraqis up front, with the United States in reserve.

We are now in a process of government formation that will be long and difficult, probably taking months, not weeks. When a government is in place, it will face the dozens of major challenges that are still out there: dealing with Kurdish-Arab tensions, dealing with unresolved issues of authorities of federal versus regional versus governments, the status of Kirkuk, disputed internal boundaries, and problems with corruption – that the Interior Minister has rightly labeled a potential second insurgency. So, clearly a good step, an encouraging step, but only one more step on what will be a very long road for Iraq.

Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 5, Number 5- March/April 2010

General Anthony Zinni

General Anthony C. Zinni (USMC-Ret.) currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of BAE Systems, Inc. He previously served as Executive Vice President of DynCorp International and is a former U.S. Peace Envoy in the Middle East and former Commander-in-Chief United States Central Command (CENTCOM). General Zinni retired as a four-star general from the United States Marine Corps in 2000.

JIPO: The military takes on so many tasks these days, from warfighting and counterinsurgency in Afghanistan to peacekeeping in the Balkans, from anti-piracy off the coast of Somalia to disaster relief in Haiti. Can the military continue to commit to all these overseas contingency operations; and how must it evolve for the future?

General Zinni: It is going to be difficult, especially given the Afghanistan and Iraq commitments, but it is an issue of scope, not of type of operation. When the scope is too large, it affects the ability of units to train, the quality of life of soldiers, wear and tear on equipment – and funding is also affected because operational costs come out of supplementals; they are not part of the budget. At this rate, it will be difficult to sustain for very much longer.

Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 5, Number 4, January – February 2010

JIPO: What challenges does the African Union (A.U.) currently face and how is it working to overcome some of its most intractable problems?

Amb Simon: The greatest challenge the A.U. faces is that, unlike any of the other major regional organizations, the A.U. has very poor countries, with the vast majority of its members either lower-middle or lower income. Therefore, it relies heavily on the donor community for resources. The A.U. constantly has to be in back-and-forth dialogue with donors to get the resources it needs to accomplish its goals.

While the A.U. has excellent leadership at the top, it has very limited support capacity in terms of quantity — not in terms of talent. The A.U. Commission has 700 positions identified and only half of those are filled. Compare that to something like 30,000 positions in European Union Commission. So the A.U. has … some of the most intractable conflicts in the world in its region and the fewest resources — both in terms of financial and human — to deal with them.

Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 5, Number 3- November/December 2009

JIPO: You have said before that the objective of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is to protect the American people, yet due to public and oversight pressures CIA is increasingly challenged by limitations on its operational space. Can you elaborate on this and the major challenges the intelligence community faces?

General Hayden: CIA is an espionage service and we do secret things. Frankly, I think this is very compatible with democracies. Moreover, I personally think it is very necessary for democracies in order to protect themselves and to allow their citizens the greatest amount of personal freedom.

In the West, we now exist inside broader political cultures that demand greater transparency and accountability from all elements of society. However, we have not yet arrived at some sort of equilibrium as to how to meet this need for transparency and accountability while still maintaining the degree of secrecy needed for organizations like CIA to exist or to function at all. This is a new phenomenon for us and we have to come to what is, frankly, a new social contract.