VZCZCXRO2108
OO RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ RUEHROV
DE RUEHRL #1436/01 2970733
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 230733Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2439
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BERLIN 001436 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV EAID PHUM PREF UNDP UN
SUBJECT: GERMANY: OPEN TO GREATER COOPERATION WITH THE U.S. 
ON INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT RESPONSE AND PREVENTION 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  Officials at the German Center for 
International Peace Operations (ZIF) told visiting S/CRS 
Deputy Coordinator Larry Sampler October 16 that they would 
welcome greater cooperation with S/CRS and invited the U.S. 
to send one or more representatives to a December 11-12 
international meeting in Berlin for alert roster managers. 
The Director of ZIF also welcomed U.S. participation in ZIF 
training courses and was very open to sharing best practices 
and lessons learned, including about screening and selecting 
staff.  While ZIF is fully operational -- with some 180 
German civilian specialists currently serving in UN, EU and 
OSCE field missions around the world -- it has never 
developed its own doctrine on peace operations, figuring that 
there is already "enough doctrine out there."  At the Foreign 
Office, the Director of Conflict Prevention, Reconstruction 
and Stabilization highlighted that Germany had dramatically 
increased its budget for crisis and conflict prevention 
programs over the past two years, going from 12 million Euros 
in 2007 to 63 million Euros in 2008 and an expected 89 
million Euros in 2009.  This reflects a new conviction that 
it is far better to prevent conflict and crisis than to have 
to deal with the consequences of inaction.  END SUMMARY. 
 
INTERLOCUTORS 
 
¶2. (SBU) During an October 16 visit to Berlin, Donald L. 
Sampler, Deputy Coordinator at the Office of the Coordinator 
of Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS), met with the 
Director of the German Center for International Peace 
Operations (Zentrum fuer Internationale Friedeneinsaetze -- 
ZIF), Winrich Kuehne, as well as with the Head of Recruitment 
at ZIF, Jens Behrendt.  Sampler also met separately with the 
Office Director of Conflict Prevention, Reconstruction and 
Stabilization at the Federal Foreign Office, Stefan 
Schlueter. 
 
FOSTERING GREATER CONTACT BETWEEN ZIF AND S/CRS 
 
¶3. (SBU) During his meeting at ZIF, Sampler noted that S/CRS 
and ZIF are similar organizations with similar mandates and 
thought both would benefit from greater contact with one 
another.  Both Kuehne and Behren agreed and immediately 
invited the U.S. to send one or more representatives to an 
experts-level meeting that ZIF is hosting in Berlin December 
11-12 for managers of alert rosters.  Noting that 
representatives from several countries and organizations 
(including the UN, EU, OSCE and African Union) were planning 
to attend, Behrendt said that one objective of the meeting 
was to see how far the international community had come in 
meeting the goals of the 2000 Brahimi Report on UN Peace 
Operations, especially in establishing rosters of 
pre-selected civilian experts able to deploy on short notice. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Kuehne and Behrendt also provided Sampler with a 
list of all training courses ZIF plans to offer in 2009 and 
said they would welcome U.S. participation.  The courses 
range in length from one to three weeks and include 
specialist courses on security, election observation, 
negotiation and mediation, rule of law and field first aid. 
ZIF also offers a two-week "core course" in peace operations 
twice a year, which is a pre-requisite (in the absence of 
other qualifying experience) for being included on ZIF's 
alert roster of pre-selected German civilian specialists 
(which current numbers about 600).  The core course includes 
sessions on cultural awareness, human rights, use of 
four-wheel drive vehicles, personal security and working with 
interpreters.  Kuehne and Behrendt noted that in the early 
years of ZIF's existence (ZIF was established in 2002), the 
emphasis was on training ZIF's own personnel, but that now 
roughly a third of all participants in ZIF courses are 
non-German.  All ZIF courses, even those with only German 
attendees, are conducted in English, since good English 
capability is considered indispensable for working in 
international peace operations.  Sampler expressed 
appreciation for the opportunity to send U.S. representative 
to the ZIF training and promised to be in touch. 
 
NO DOCTRINE -- JUST DOING IT 
 
¶5. (SBU) Kuehne and Behrendt noted that while ZIF is fully 
operational with some 180 German civilian specialists 
currently serving in UN, EU and OSCE field missions around 
the world, it has never developed doctrine on peace 
operations.  Kuehne noted that the closest thing Germany has 
to any doctrine in this field was in the 2006 White Book on 
German Security Policy.  He dismissed the idea of ZIF trying 
to develop its own doctrine, arguing that there was already 
"enough doctrine out there" and that the process would 
distract ZIF from its operational work.  Kuehne noted that 
representatives from the United States Institute of Peace 
(USP) and the U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations 
 
BERLIN 00001436  002 OF 002 
 
 
Institute (PKSOI) had just visited ZIF recently, introducing 
and seeking feedback on their draft "Handbook of Guiding 
Principles for Peace Operations."  Sampler emphasized that 
while the Handbook was useful, the USG was not prepared to 
endorse it as U.S. doctrine. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Sampler said he had the impression that ZIF was one 
or two years ahead of S/CRS in recruiting, training and 
deploying civilian specialists and that S/CRS could therefore 
benefit from ZIF's experience.  Kuehne was very open to 
sharing best practices and lessons learned with S/CRS, 
including about screening and selecting staff.  Kuehne noted 
that one of ZIF's mandates when it was created in 2002 was to 
integrate into one single alert roster all of the individual 
rosters maintained by separate government ministries.  He 
argued that this had brought coherence to a previously 
fragmented system.  Sampler acknowledged the benefits of 
maintaining and using a single alert roster, but expressed 
doubts about whether that would be possible in the U.S. 
context. 
 
FOLLOW-UP TO COPENHAGEN MEETING 
 
¶7. (SBU) At the Foreign Office, Sampler followed up with 
Schlueter regarding the results of the October 1 UNDP 
conference in Copenhagen on "early recovery" of post-conflict 
states, which both had attended.  They agreed that much work 
remains to be done to flesh out the new concept of "early 
recovery" before the UNSC-mandated report on implementation 
was due in May 2009. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Schleuter also highlighted that the Foreign Office 
had dramatically increased its budget for crisis and conflict 
prevention programs over the past two years, going from 12 
million Euros in 2007 to 63 million Euros in 2008 and an 
expected 89 million Euros in 2009.  Schleuter said this 
reflected a new conviction that it was far better to prevent 
conflict and crisis than to have to deal with the 
consequences of inaction.  He said the increased resources 
also reflected Germany's re-dedication to trying to reach the 
UN Millennium Goal of spending at least 0.7% of GNP on 
development assistance. 
Pollard