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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 ROME 000178 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR PM/PPA JENNIFER HANLEY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPKO MARR MOPS PGOV PREL IT ID NI UP CM IN
JO, KE, ML, RO, SG, PK, YI, MO 
SUBJECT: COESPU AT THE TWO-YEAR MARK: 1,000 PEACEKEEPERS 
TRAINED, 2,000 TO GO 
 
 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Two years after its inception, the Center 
of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU) in Vicenza, 
Italy, is well on its way to achieving its goal of training 
3,000 gendarme/carabinieri-style police officers and trainers 
by the end of 2010.  Since November 2005, Italian Carabinieri 
(National Paramilitary Police) at CoESPU have trained 1,102 
officers from 13 countries in stability police peacekeeping 
techniques, and the center will soon expand participation to 
new countries.  CoESPU is a G8 initiative but it depends for 
the bulk of its funding, staffing and guidance on Italy and 
the U.S.  As such, CoESPU represents an important and highly 
tangible instance of U.S.-Italian cooperation.  The 
challenges CoESPU now faces include: measuring the 
effectiveness of its graduates, deploying Mobile Training 
Teams (MTTs) to countries that have pledged police units for 
Darfur, streamlining its human rights vetting procedures, and 
developing more secure sources of funding.  If approved, the 
Italian request for additional U.S. staffing should help the 
center meet some of these challenges.  End Summary. 
 
Off to an excellent start... 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶2. (U) CoESPU was founded in November 2005 at a Carabinieri 
training center in Vicenza, Italy, as a joint contribution by 
the U.S. and Italy to the G8 "Action Plan for Expanding 
Global Capability for Peace Support Operations" adopted at 
the Sea Island Summit in 2004.  The plan was developed to 
address the need for increased global peacekeeping capacity, 
with a particular focus on Africa, and pledged to train, by 
2010, 75,000 international peacekeepers, at least 7,500 of 
which would be gendarme/carabinieri-type police (Stability 
Police Units or SPUs) specializing in managing the transition 
from a post-crisis situation to a more stable context for 
reconstruction.  SPUs (also called FPUs or Formed Police 
Units) are highly mobile autonomous units of 140 personnel 
each, and are an increasingly important component of UN peace 
operations.  The UN has expanded FPU operations over the last 
several years to over 36 units currently deployed worldwide 
-- 21 of which come from CoESPU partner countries -- and has 
authorized up to 19 FPUs for UNAMID. 
 
¶3. (U) CoESPU's goal is to train 3,000 stability police 
peacekeepers and trainers by the end of 2010.  Since its 
founding in November 2005, Italian Carabinieri trainers at 
CoESPU have trained 1,102 officers from 13 countries in 
stability police techniques using a curriculum developed by 
the Carabinieri in collaboration with the UN Department of 
Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO).  An additional 12 countries 
have participated in the command leadership seminars that 
DPKO holds at CoESPU for its stability police personnel.  The 
 
ROME 00000178  002 OF 005 
 
 
U.S. pays for about a third of CoESPU's annual budget through 
the Global Peace Operations Initiative or GPOI.  Of the five 
staff positions envisioned for U.S. officers at CoESPU, only 
one (the Deputy Director position) has thus far been filled. 
 
¶4. (U) The Carabinieri, who developed a robust Stability 
Police Unit model in Bosnia and Kosovo, are acknowledged by 
the UN and other international organizations to be leaders in 
the field of developing Stability Police Unit doctrine.  The 
U.S. and Italy have also sent Mobile Assistance Teams (MATs) 
to almost all of the CoESPU participant countries to prepare 
contributing police forces for CoESPU training and to monitor 
the progress of past graduates. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The officers trained at CoESPU come from a diverse 
group of countries that have agreed to use their graduates to 
train and form Stability Police Units that will deploy to 
peacekeeping operations under UN or