Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI)

Extracted 01JUN2011 from http://www.state.gov/t/pm/ppa/gpoi/

The Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) addresses major gaps in international peace operations support. The program aims to build and maintain capability, capacity, and effectiveness of peace operations.

History

The Global Peace Operations Initiative was established after the 2004 G8 Sea Island Summit to address growing gaps in international peace operations. The goals of GPOI expand upon the goals of the Sea Island Action Plan. GPOI built policy based on previous peace operations capacity-building programs.

From 1997-2005, the United States spent just over $152 million on the GPOI program's predecessors - the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI), successor the African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program, and the Enhanced International Peacekeeping Capabilities (EIPC) program.

Prior to GPOI, the United States trained some 16,000 troops through the ACRI/ACOTA program from ten African nations - Benin, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, and Zambia. With its established record of success, the Africa Bureau-implemented ACOTA program continues as a centerpiece of the GPOI program. Through the ACOTA program, a partner country's trainer cadre gradually progresses from being trainees to assuming responsibility for conducting training. USG trainers mentor them through this progression. The USG encourages partners to use these trainers to significantly increase the number of trained peacekeepers under GPOI.

The EIPC program existed between FY 1998-2004 to support classroom and train-the-trainer training for 31 foreign militaries. EIPC was a global program that impacted countries around the world including: Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Bulgaria, Chile, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Fiji, Ghana, Hungary, India, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa, Thailand, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Uruguay. Many former EIPC partners have become GPOI partners. The EIPC program and its goals of institutionalization of peacekeeping skills were subsumed into the GPOI program. EIPC no longer exists as a separate program.

Objectives and Activities

1. Train and Equip: Train and, as appropriate, equip at least 75,000 peacekeepers worldwide, with an emphasis on Africa, to increase global capacity to participate in peace operations.
2. Regional and Institutional Capacity Building: Enhance the capacity of regional and sub-regional organizations to train for, plan, prepare for, manage, conduct, and obtain and sustain lessons-learned from peace operations by providing technical assistance, training, and material support; and, support institutions and activities which offer these capabilities to a regional audience.
3. Clearinghouse Activities: Create a "clearinghouse" function to exchange information and coordinate G8 efforts to enhance peace operations training and exercises in Africa; continue to provide support for such clearinghouse initiatives throughout the life of the G8's Action Plan for Expanding Global Capability for Peace Support Operations.
4. Transportation and Logistics Support Arrangement: Work with other G8 members to develop a globally oriented transportation and logistics support arrangement to help provide transportation for deploying peacekeepers and logistics support to sustain units in the field.
5. Deployment Equipment: Develop a cached equipment program to procure and warehouse equipment for use in peace operations anywhere around the globe.
6. Stability Police: Provide support to the international Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (COESPU) in Italy to increase the capabilities and interoperability of stability police to participate in peace operations.
7. Sustainment and Self Sufficiency: Conduct sustainment/self-sufficiency activities in support of the objectives above with a focus on assisting partners to sustain proficiencies gained in training programs. (Note: Owing to its importance, sustainment/self-sufficiency is addressed in the strategy as both and objective and an overarching implementing principle for all objectives.)

All objectives support the building and maintenance capability, capacity, and effectiveness to plan and execute peace support operations.

GPOI Team

The Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) is managed by the Office of Plans, Policy, and Analysis in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State. For further information on the GPOI Team, please contact the Office of Plans Policy and Analysis at 202-647-7775.

GPOI management and oversight partners include:

• The U.S. Department of State Office of Plans, Policy, and Analysis (PM/PPA);
• The Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Partnership Strategy; and
• Joint Staff, Office of the J5, Stability Operations and Security Assistance Division.

The program is guided by the GPOI Coordinating Committee (GCC), which meets regularly to provide strategic direction for GPOI programs, events, and activities. GCC representatives include members from the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs of the State Department (Co-Chair), Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Partnership Strategy, Joint Staff, and, when appropriate, representatives from State Department and/or Defense Department regional bureaus and offices, and the National Security Council (NSC).

Program implementation is carried out with assistance from the regional bureaus of the State Department, U.S. diplomatic posts, OSD Partnership Strategy, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), regional affairs offices of OSD, the Joint Staff, and the Regional Combatant Commands.