Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 7, Number 3 – November-December, 2011

In August 2011, the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan (CWC) issued its final report, Transforming Wartime Contracting: Controlling Costs; Reducing Risks. Established by Congress in 2008 in response to increasing indications of widespread waste, fraud, and abuse in government contracting, CWC was charged with assessing a number of facets of wartime contracting. CWC’s overarching conclusion is that federal agencies have become over reliant on contractors in conducting contingency operations. Its final report concludes that federal agencies have been forced to treat contractors as the default option because they lack the organic capacity to perform some mission-critical functions, and that the government lacks the acquisition personnel and structures needed to manage and oversee an unprecedentedly large contractor force that at times has outnumbered troops in the field.

Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 7, Number 2 – September-October, 2011

LIKE many areas of post-9/11 law relating to national security issues, the regulation of private security and stability contractors has developed by fits and starts. Since the 2007 Nissour Square incident, however, ensuring accountability for criminal conduct engaged in by contractor employees overseas is one area that has received sustained attention from Congress and commentators. The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000 and the amendments to it in 2004 (commonly referred to as MEJA) achieved the accountability objective only in part. MEJA applies on its face only to contractor employees working overseas for the Department of Defense (DOD). An accountability gap remains for contractor employees working overseas for other government agencies, a gap that frustrates many, including contractors themselves.

The Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2011 (CEJA) is designed to fill that gap. In June 2011, Senator Patrick Leahy introduced CEJA in the Senate and Congressman David Price introduced a companion bill in the House. Senator Leahy had introduced a version of CEJA in the last Congress, but the legislation did not pass. This version may not pass either, assessing what it could accomplish is worthwhile. After all, the bill already has been reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and if it does become law, federal enforcement activity will increase.

Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 6, Number 6 – May-June, 2011

While, as of this writing, the fate of the revolt against Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi remains uncertain, notwithstanding the deployment by the United States military of armed Predator drones in support of NATO’s Operation Unified Protector, it is nonetheless not too soon to be looking at the likely impact of the geopolitical shifts that the uprising has already set in motion—and will continue to do, irrespective of its outcome.

Mercenaries

There have been repeated reports of “African mercenaries” fighting to defend the Qaddafi regime. Rebel forces have put bodies on display alleged to be those of slain mercenaries as well as live prisoners whom they accuse of having fought against them. Veteran correspondents have tracked down efforts to recruit fighters from groups as disparate as tribesmen in Mali and the Polisario separatists from camps in Algeria. Amid the many allegations of mercenary use, the one thing that is clear is that there is a “foreign fighter problem” in Libya and it is by no means new.

Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 6, Number 5 – March-April, 2011

South Sudan has successfully carried out its independence referendum and the government of Sudan has accepted the result — an overwhelming vote for secession. The people of the recently –named, independent country  South Sudan should be congratulated on ending a decades-long violent conflict with a peaceful vote. The Sudanese government has acted constructively by allowing the referendum to go forward and by quickly endorsing the outcome.

The international community played a significant role in this process. The African Union, the United Nations and the United States each played central roles in negotiating, cajoling and pushing the necessary parties to ensure that the referendum would come off. All should be proud of the historic event that has transpired.

Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 6, Number 4 – January-February, 2011

Headlines of civilian or military deaths due to armed conflict dominate much of Afghanistan war reporting. As tragic as these deaths are, their numbers pale in comparison with the loss of lives due to other reasons, such as maternal deaths and infant mortality.

About 2,000 international troops, mostly from the United States, have lost their lives since 2001 in Afghanistan. About 3,000 civilians were killed in the first six months of 2010, while about 20 Afghan policemen and soldiers die every day trying to secure the country against a brutal insurgency that is maintained outside our borders.

In contrast, more than 50,000 Afghans die annually due to a lack of human security. Newly born babies, children under the age of five and mothers constitute the bulk of these lives that can, and must, be saved. Unfortunately, these silent deaths do not grab Afghan or international headlines. Why is this and what can be done about it?

One of the key reasons for this disparity in media coverage is the fact that defense spending continues to outstrip spending on development. In other words, protective security is often prioritized at the cost of human security, even though the two are inextricably intertwined, particularly in Afghanistan with a sizeable population of vulnerable groups.

For over sixty years the United States and Pakistan have been mired in a love-hate relationship. Relations between these two countries have oscillated from a staunch Cold War alliance, in which the Pakistanis received billions in military and economic aid from the United States, to a relationship wherein the United States placed heavy sanctions on the nuclear pariah for its proliferation activities in the 1990s.

The latest chapter in this saga is still fraught with tension and dissatisfaction. The U.S.-led NATO forces are now in their ninth year of military operations in Afghanistan, and the mission’s success is inextricably linked to Pakistan’s capacity and will to crack down on al Qaida, Taliban and affiliate groups inside its border. Ongoing grievances from both parties are further complicating relations. For example, the Pakistani leadership is facing a local population restless with its support of NATO’s operations in Afghanistan. A recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center indicates that only 7 percent of the respondents want American and NATO troops to remain in Afghanistan. The United States faces its own issues: it is having a hard time getting the Pakistani military to crack down on the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Group factions in the northwestern pockets of the country.

Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 6, Number 2 – September/October, 2010

On July 27 2010, Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo was sworn in as the new president of Somaliland. He is an aging formerchairman of the Somali National Movement (SNM) who fought against the repression of Siad Barre’s dictatorship. This marks a historic transition of power to the Kulmiye party and defeat for the incumbent President Riyale’s UDUB party, who have ruled since democratic transition after the region declared independence in 1991. Peaceful transfer of political power would be an achievement in any African country, but when you consider Somaliland’s precarious position as an unrecognized breakaway state on Africa’s horn it becomes all the more impressive.

Somaliland has been functioning as an independent and relatively stable entity since the collapse of the Somali state. While Somalia continues to make headlines for violence, humanitarian crises and pirate-infested waters, Somaliland has forged its own very separate story.

The presidential election on June 26 marks the fourth set of peaceful, democratic elections for Somaliland. This peace, however, was not assured. In advance of the elections, al-Shabaab, the southern Somali Islamist insurgency group with links to al-Qaeda, threatened to violently disrupt the elections. Although Somalilanders, politicians and organizers alike were concerned, vigilance from locals and the police helped to foil an alleged terrorist plot and ensured that no large scale violence compromised the vote. Another major concern was that Somaliland’s hard-earned stability would be jeopardized if the results showed it to be a tight race. In Somaliland’s last presidential election in 2003, Silanyo lost by a mere 80 votes. In that instance he stood aside, putting the stability of the country before his desire to rule. Many feared that the same calm would not prevail a second time around.

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

Ethnic Uzbeks fleeing violence in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

CHAMPIONED as an “island of democracy” in 1990s, invoking the country’s embrace of liberal democracy and free market economy, Kyrgyzstan today verges on becoming an island of chaos with a potential to destabilize the region. Indeed, in the wake of two violent government overthrows within a five-year period and further bloody massacres in the country’s south this June, the current interim government’s failure to establish legitimacy and rule of law could have dire consequences.

When the 2005 Tulip Revolution replaced the 15-year rule of Askar Akaev with Kurmanbek Bakiev, the impoverished country of 5 million looked at the change with immense hope. Bakiev promised to end the long-standing family-run governance, cronyism and corruption, and boost freedom of press and speech; but his actions reinforced the worst qualities of Akaev’s presidency. By any measure, living standards and basic freedoms have rapidly deteriorated since 2005. The Bakiev government’s decision to increase energy and telecommunications prices in early 2010 led to spontaneous angry protests that took a violent climax on April 7 when a bloody riot ended with 87 deaths and over a thousand wounded unarmed civilians.

Although the lootings and vandalism following the violence were lesser in scale compared to the aftermath of the 2005 revolution, chaos swept through government and parliament buildings, the commercial sector and a television station. Kyrgyz law enforcement was demoralized and absent the night of the government overthrow. Ordinary citizens and businesses demonstrated that they were (and still are) ready to use force to protect property, particularly when illegal land grabs began in and around the capital, Bishkek. People gathered to form volunteer vigilante groups to provide for public order and protection of private property. Such groups still remain in force, as evidenced by signs displayed in shops around Bishkek. Not a single looter is punished yet, according to local press reports.

Continue reading »

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

BECAUSE the U.S. Air Force had taken over the Port au Prince International Airport and closed it to anything other than daily military and aid flights, Unity’s Crisis Response and Facilitation Team (CRAFT), like so many others responding to the disaster, made its way to Haiti overland via the Dominican Republic (DR). The border crossing at Jimani served as the most accessible point of entry from Santa Domingo. The journey required a four-hour drive through modern Dominican cities and quaint little towns in the country side, highlighting the contrast between one side of Hispaniola to the other, and orientating the team to the locale and the background of the indigenous population.

The team made its last stop for fuel at the service station on the outskirts of Jimani, where, for the first time on the journey, children surrounded the vehicle, asking for money in both Spanish and Creole. The line for the border crossing began several hundred meters away.

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

IMAGINE 6,700 men, women and children living crammed together in an encampment less than a football field in length and with little to no sanitation. Imagine their home as a hovel comprised of anything they can lay their hands on, with only sheets or tarps to protect them from the elements.

This was the situation Triple Canopy representatives found when they arrived on the grounds of an HIV/AIDS center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in mid-February of this year. When the January 12 earthquake struck, devastating Haiti and leaving over a million people homeless, the company wanted to give back to a community where it had previously worked. The company’s philanthropy committee researched established charities located in Port-au-Prince, hoping to support an organization and make an immediate impact by purchasing, transporting aid to those in need.