{"id":13744,"date":"2014-05-09T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T20:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=13744"},"modified":"2014-05-12T09:20:18","modified_gmt":"2014-05-11T23:20:18","slug":"police-and-peacekeeping-not-just-an-afterthought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/police-and-peacekeeping-not-just-an-afterthought\/","title":{"rendered":"Police and peacekeeping: not just an afterthought"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week the UN Security Council adopted resolution 2151<\/a>\u2014its first stand-alone resolution on security sector reform (SSR). It\u2019s not the first time that the issue of SSR has been considered by the Council. Indeed, references to it in Security Council resolutions have increased noticeably<\/a> in recent years. Still, the adoption of resolution 2151 is significant as it reaffirms the centrality of SSR to the organisation\u2019s work, particularly peacekeeping operations and political missions.<\/p>\n

As you\u2019d expect, Australia\u2014as a Security Council member\u2014actively participated in the negotiations on resolution 2151. Our history of regional engagement means that we have considerable experience supporting SSR efforts in Timor-Leste and the Solomon Islands\u2014experience highlighted in Australia\u2019s statement<\/a> to the Security Council. In that statement, Ambassador Quinlan spoke about the centrality of policing to SSR efforts and urged the Council to focus on that as part of its mandating process. He noted that the Council had just authorised a large police component to be deployed to the UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).<\/p>\n

Of particular note, resolution 2151 acknowledges the significant role of UN police in supporting SSR efforts. That\u2019s not to say SSR is the exclusive responsibility of police\u2014far from it, as the resolution points out. But policing is given particular attention, with the resolution recognising the importance of developing \u2018professional, accessible, and accountable policing capabilities\u2019 as part of a more integrated approach to reforming the security architecture.<\/p>\n

The ongoing expansion of multidimensional peacekeeping missions with SSR mandates partly explains why there has been a noticeable increase in the number of UN police over the last 20 years. According to the UN Secretary-General\u2019s report on UN Police<\/a> (PDF) from 2011, there were 1,677 police deployed in 1994. That number grew to 14,333 police in 2012. While the number has dropped to 12,094 police as of April 2014<\/a>, we can expect a high level to continue with the authorisation of a large police component to MINUSCA, as well as an unmet demand for UN police in Mali and South Sudan. It\u2019s a trend that\u2019s unlikely to reverse quickly.<\/p>\n

At the centre of Australia\u2019s policing efforts over the last decade has been the Australian Federal Police\u2019s (AFP) International Deployment Group (IDG). It\u2019s a unique capacity. Few countries have a readily deployable group of police that can be trained and ready for overseas missions\u2014or provide officers who understand community-based policing and investigation. Yet, our deployments have dropped in the last two years, down from 75 police deployed to UN missions in March 2012, to 16 police as of March 2014. Our police contributions to UN peacekeeping aren\u2019t matching international developments.<\/p>\n

Nor is the current budget of the IDG. The 2013-14 allocation for this program fell by $23m<\/a> (or 7 per cent) from the previous year. The cause of that decrease was \u2018a reduction to official development assistance expenditure, offset measures and the effect of efficiency and targeted savings\u2019. That pattern is set to continue over the next three years. IDG funding is set to fall a further 16% (around $50m) over that period from this year\u2019s level unless there\u2019s a new operation. The decreased funding for IDG raises questions about whether the Government\u2019s resourcing for international deployments aligns with the position being taken in the UN.<\/p>\n

It also highlights a paradox whereby Defence funding is being maintained in the short term and increased in the longer term, while resources for other equally crucial national security agencies are being cut. That might mean non-Defence agencies\u2014with Foreign Affairs being included here\u2014not being well-positioned to respond quickly to the next international crisis with an effective contribution.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not only about response time: it\u2019s also about ensuring that governments have options to meet crisis situations. Reducing IDG funding is likely to impact upon its ability to deploy a range of police skills quickly, especially where there\u2019s a need to replace a collapsed law and justice sector. It also increases the risk that ad hoc <\/i>contingents will have to be formed to meet unusual situations. And that risk is increasing at a time when, as mentioned above, police are becoming more important in interventions.<\/p>\n

The claim for increasing importance is based upon two important lessons from our recent experience. The first is that people in collapsed societies want security, justice and prosperity: but they won\u2019t necessarily be satisfied if those are offered only in that order. The military is a one-dimensional tool in such operations: soldiers may stop combatants from fighting, but they don\u2019t stop the extortion and incidental violence that accompanies societies in conflict. Soldiers might open markets, but they don\u2019t necessarily help fair trade. Those additional needs require both a skill-set and a mandate that belongs to the law and justice sector\u2014to which IDG makes a critical contribution.<\/p>\n

David Connery is a senior analyst and Lisa Sharland is an analyst at ASPI. Image courtesy of the Australian Federal Police<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week the UN Security Council adopted resolution 2151\u2014its first stand-alone resolution on security sector reform (SSR). It\u2019s not the first time that the issue of SSR has been considered by the Council. 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