The third peacekeeping mission involves the use of peacekeeping forces. These operations involve all four services working from the ground, in the air, or at sea. Peacekeeping forces also perform peace support operations and observation missions. In situations involving U.S. forces, peacekeepers can be expected to:

Establish a buffer zone;

Ensure free access and usage of international maritime routes or
airways;

Supervise cease-fire agreements;

Supervise withdrawals and disengagements;

■ Separate the belligerents;

■ Verify the disposition of troops;

■ Oversee prisoner of war exchanges;

Oversee demilitarization and demobilization operations;
Maintain law and order by defusing potential conflict;

■ Administer elections;

■ Perform civil administration duties for the Host Nation (Campbell).

ASSESSING THE READINESS OF THE U.S. MILITARY
FOR UN PEACE OPERATIONS

In order to measure the readiness of the U.S. military for the peacekeeping mission, we have selected key factors which commanders use to assess the readiness of an individual or a unit and applied the decision matrix program of the Military Application Program Package (MAPP) available at the U.S.

Army Combined Arms and Services Staff School, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas (USA a). The following key factors are used to analyze the current U.S. military capability in peace operations."

COMMAND, CONTROL, AND COMMUNICATIONS

The first key factor to consider is command, control and communications. To evaluate U.S. readiness to support a peace operation it is necessary to consider the actual organizational structure in place today to conduct peace operations, and the procedures that are followed to actually place an individual in a UN mission or deploy a unit to participate in a peace operation. The actual number of people in the U.S. military establishment who are prepared today to start work immediately on request for a new UN mission comes to a grand total of three.

UN Peacekeeping Office

The oldest, smallest, and most obscure office that supports U.S. peacekeeping is the UN Peacekeeping Office in the Pentagon. The U.S. Department of Defense has provided individual military observers to serve with the UN in peacekeeping operations since 1948 (USA c: 7). Although this support to the UN had been ongoing for over 25 years, the Department of Defense did not designate the Army as the executive agent for UN peacekeeping until 1973 (U.S. DoD OSD a). Executive agent status gives the Army tasking authority over other services to provide personnel and assets in support of various UN peacekeeping missions, when approved by the Secretary of Defense. The Army's role of executive agent for UN peacekeeping expanded in May 1991 with the establishment of the UN IraqKuwait Observer Mission (UNIKOM). Army responsibilities continued to grow until, in May 1992, they included over 140 all-service personnel supporting five UN peacekeeping operations and a small liaison element to the UN Headquarters in New York (USA c: 7). The UN Peacekeeping Office (UNPKO) in the Army Operations Center (AOC) of the Pentagon is the

1 In their Master's theses, Captains Lautner and Piskator used a complex decision matrix program in which they assigned numerical values and employed a hierarchical scale to variables. Space constraints in the present work do not permit the inclusion of the methodological rationale for their analysis. Their evaluation of current U.S. capabilities and their reasoning for their assessments have been reduced here to a simple colorcoding scheme to represent their judgments.

central point for coordination of all individual military observer support for UN missions.

The UNPKO office is currently authorized only two officers to manage and coordinate for over 5,000 personnel from five services serving in peacekeeping missions. This has led to an ad hoc approach. The office is new, growing in responsibilities and functions, and woefully understaffed.

Whenever a new UN mission is authorized, the UNPKO establishes how many observers are required, what skills are necessary to qualify for the mission, and how many slots will be allocated to each service. The UNPKO, through the AOC, then tasks each service to provide a number of officers who have the requisite skills. The Department of Defense recognizes that peacekeeping operations are predominantly a ground force mission, and the Army and the Marines usually fill a majority of positions. However, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard personnel are also used as UN peacekeepers (U.S. DoD f).

Once individual service members are designated to deploy as UN peacekeepers, they are trained in conducting peacekeeping operations. This training is usually a two-week course that emphasizes anti-terrorist techniques, mine recognition, field craft, and peacekeeping principles. The U.S. Army recognizes that Special Forces, Military Police, and Military Intelligence officers have been trained in certain areas and possess skills that are conducive to conducting successful peacekeeping operations. Because of this, a large number of Army officers deployed as UN peacekeepers are from these three branches.

It would be useful to maintain a pool of trained officers to deploy on short notice in support of the UN. However, this is not the policy of the Department of Defense. New personnel must be trained to support new missions and to relieve personnel on existing missions. The selection and training period limits how quickly the U.S. can respond to requests from the UN for support. Further, the Peacekeeping Office does not maintain a data base of all U.S. Army personnel who are trained in peacekeeping. Nor does the Army record additional skill identifiers to track personnel specially trained and experienced in peacekeeping. Skills such as language qualification, anti-terrorist training, area training, on-ground experience, specific branch and job qualifications, and even cultural heritage are all important to peacekeepers. If these specific skills and qualifications were

effectively monitored by the Army, a data base of prepared and deployable personnel to support UN operations would be readily available.

Army Operations Center

The U.S. Army also maintains a point of contact in the Army Operations Center (AOC) responsible for coordinating all actions to support the U.S. Army elements participating in the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) mission in the Sinai. This MFO constitutes the Army's only experience in conducting a large-unit peacekeeping mission. The MFO officer in the AOC monitors the U.S. support to MFO, tasks additional units to rotate to the Sinai to replace existing units, and coordinates with the civilian headquarters of the MFO in Italy. The AOC has no responsibility to provide extensive peacekeeping training to the soldiers that deploy for a six-month rotation to the Sinai. This training is strictly the responsibility of the individual units and their immediate headquarters. A briefing packet and additional instructions are given to MFO participants, but the principal training is conducted by deployed or deploying units.

Ad Hoc Support

There are several other ways in which U.S. forces support peacekeeping operations. U.S. military assets quite frequently provide communications, airlift, intelligence, and logistics support to various peacekeeping efforts, both with and without the UN. The majority of this support is conducted on an ad hoc basis, through various military commands, to provide one-time, unique support to peacekeeping operations.

When smaller, short-duration support missions are required, the U.S. Department of Defense may direct military operations using existing command structures. If the peacekeeping support or effort requires a larger, specifically designated headquarters, then either an existing unit will be tasked or a new unit formed to provide command and control, possibly under a Joint Task Force (JTF).

Within the Department of Defense there is no central peacekeeping office designated to act as the executive agent for all peacekeeping operations. The new Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (OASD) for Democratic Security and Peacekeeping should not be considered a solution to the problem, since the main function of the new office will primarily be

the formulation of defense policy. A separate office at the Joint Staff level is needed to facilitate and coordinate all military support to peacekeeping operations. A coordinated effort at the Joint Staff level would smooth operations during joint and combined operations. It would also ensure that the designated DoD agencies and services understand and perform their assigned tasks. Nevertheless, until a joint peacekeeping office is created, the Army's UN peacekeeping office will continue to support all peacekeeping missions.

In general, all peacekeeping requests enter the U.S. Government informally through the Bureau of International Organizations in the Department of State, the lead government agency responsible for overall planning and execution of U.S. support to peacekeeping operations. The Secretary of State notifies the President and the National Security Council (NSC) of the request. Once staffed by the International Organizations Bureau in State, the request is passed to the Secretary of Defense, who forwards it to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (ASD/ ISA), the primary staff section at the OSD/OASD level. ASD/ISA then staffs and sends the request to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), who provides overall guidance prior to routing the request to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The Chairman, at his discretion, may also direct the formation of a joint action cell to organize, coordinate, and monitor any support required. Once routed to the JCS, the request is studied and staffed to determine the military's position, and this process will continue until the new OASD for Democratic Security and Peacekeeping is prepared to take over for the ASD/ISA, to coordinate various service positions, and to work out the details of the mission. Today, a regional Commander in Chief (CINC) or service is selected to be the Executive Agent responsible for coordinating and/or providing the following support for committed U.S. forces:

Administrative

■ Personnel

■ Operational

Logistics
Intelligence

■Command, Control & Communications

The Executive Agent also publishes the terms of reference (TOR) based on the tentative mandate provided by the requesting organization. The TOR