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DE RUCNDT #0644/01 1822348
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 012348Z JUL 09
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6828
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA IMMEDIATE 0087
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD IMMEDIATE 2409
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI IMMEDIATE 2712
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA IMMEDIATE 1198

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 USUN NEW YORK 000644 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: UNSC PHUM PREL
SUBJECT: SECURITY COUNCIL WEIGHS FUTURE OF PEACEKEEPING 
 
REF: USUN 61 
 
¶1. (SBU)  SUMMARY.  Security Council members, senior 
Secretariat officials, and major troop contributing countries 
debated the future of United Nations peacekeeping operations 
(UNPKO) in a full-day session on June 29.  UN Under 
Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Le Roy said in 
his opening remarks that the Security Council's design of 
increasingly complex mandates for UNPKOs coupled with 
resource and financial constraints have created a need to 
generate "better capabilities, not just numbers" of troops. 
Under Secretary-General for Field Support Malcorra called for 
an overhaul of the UN's approach to mission support to allow 
provision of logistics services on a regional and global 
basis rather than relying on strictly mission-by-mission 
supply chains.  Ambassador Rice agreed that UN peacekeeping 
faces significant challenges as described by Le Roy and 
Malcorra, adding that the United States is ready to do its 
part to overcome them because "UN peacekeeping operations 
save lives."  Security Council members generally supported in 
broad terms the suggested reforms previewed by Le Roy and 
Malcorra.  Several Troop Contributing Countries (TCC) said 
any peacekeeping reform had to provide the basis for a more 
effective partnership between the Security Council, the UN 
Secretariat, and the TCCs.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) On June 29, Security Council President Turkey presided 
over a full-day debate on the agenda item "UN Peacekeeping 
Operations" (UNPKOs). In addition to Council members, 
participants included under secretary-generals Alain Le Roy 
(Peacekeeping Operations) and Susanna Malcorra (Field 
Support) as well as representatives of several significant 
troop contributing countries and other interested member 
states, including Bangladesh, Canada (as Chair of the UN 
Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations), the Czech 
Republic (as European Union President) Egypt, Germany, Ghana, 
India, Italy, Nigeria, Jordan, Morocco (as Chair of the 
Non-Aligned Movement), Pakistan, Rwanda, and Spain. 
 
Secretariat Wants More Coherent, Smarter-Resourced UNPKOs 
---------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) U/SYG Le Roy opened the debate by observing that 
UNPKO mandates (i.e., Security Council resolutions) have 
become more complex than ever. That complexity, he suggested, 
results more from the ambiguity of political compromises 
reached by Council members as they draft resolutions than 
from any effort to provide real operational guidance to 
peacekeepers on the ground.  He said UNPKOs are often left 
confused about the particulars and prioritization of mandate 
tasks and the appropriate means for achieving them.  He 
singled out the "protection of civilians mandate" and the 
"political, strategic, and operational aspects of 'robust 
peacekeeping'" as particularly lacking in common member 
understanding and coherent articulation. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Aside from a call for a "renewed consensus" on UNPKO 
mandates, Le Roy stressed that a successful UNPKO must be 
grounded in "an active, functioning peace process" addressing 
the roots of the conflict and providing clear political 
goals.  A UNPKO conceived with clear mandates and political 
goals still needed to be adequately resourced and deployed, 
Le Roy noted.  He suggested that a "new partnership" among 
primary stakeholders featuring improved Secretariat planning 
and dialogue with troop and police contributors was essential 
to finding resources and deploying them.  In addition to 
fostering clarity of mission purpose, he believed such a 
partnership would be likely to yield better trained, 
increasingly professional UNPKO troops and police.  He 
concluded by saying that modern peacekeeping deployed 
pursuant to robust mandates in dangerous environments 
demanded a focus on "how to better generate capabilities, not 
just numbers" of troops. 
 
¶5. (SBU) U/SYG Malcorra's presentation was pragmatic.  She 
said that past logistical innovations for supporting UNPKOs 
-- such as strategic supply reserves and Secretariat 
authority to commit up to $50 million in advance of a formal 
UNPKO mandate -- had proven their worth but have been 
outstripped by the sheer volume of the collective needs of 
UNPKOs.  She said bluntly that "more of the same will not do" 
and called for "a more nuanced, targeted approach -- with 
some elements of mission support provided globally, others 
from a regional center and others at the level of individual 
missions."  She argued that the current model of separate 
 
USUN NEW Y 00000644  002 OF 004 
 
 
supply lines for each mission -- created by applicable 
regulations and accounting practices -- needed to give way to 
a model that would allow faster and smarter deployment of 
resources, decentralized decision-making, revised procurement 
rules that allow better calibration of supply, asset-sharing 
between missions, greater financial flexibility, and the 
development of a truly global and mobile UN Department of 
Field Support workforce. 
 
U.S. Pledges Active Leadership and Support 
------------------------------ 
 
¶6. (SBU) Ambassador Rice called for and signaled willingness 
to entertain a new wave of reforms required to better plan, 
manage and responsibly drawdown UN peacekeeping operations. 
She outlined key principles that will guide the U.S. approach 
to UN peacekeeping.  The U.S. will insist on "credible and 
achievable" mandates and judicious decision-making about 
where and when to establish new operations.  In this regard, 
the U.S. believed conditions are not appropriate for 
successful UN peacekeeping in Somalia, but it urgently needs 
other forms of sustained, if not increased, international 
support.  The U.S. will intensify diplomatic efforts to give 
new momentum to some of the stalled or faltering peace 
processes in areas where UN peacekeeping operations are 
deployed, starting with Darfur and the North-South peace 
process in Sudan.  The U.S. will assist the UN and other 
partners to expand the pool of willing and available troop 
and police contributors.  To that end, the U.S. is prepared 
to consider directly contributing more military staff 
officers, military observers, civilian police and civilian 
personnel, including women, to UN peacekeeping operations and 
will explore ways to provide enabling assistance, either by 
ourselves or together with partners.  The immediate priority 
will be to help UN peacekeeping operations in Darfur, Chad 
and the DRC to acquire the missing forces and enabling units 
needed to better protect civilians from physical violence, 
including sexual violence.  And, starting in September with 
discussions on Liberia and Haiti, the U.S. will use the 
occasion of mandate renewals to consider how its assistance 
to local institutions, particularly for security and rule of 
law institutions, can accelerate the transfer of 
responsibilities from the UN peacekeeping operations to the 
host country while avoiding arbitrary or abrupt downsizing of 
missions. 
 
 
Other Permanent Five Find (Some) Common Ground 
------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) French PermRep Ripert France broadly agreed with the 
summary of UN peacekeeping efforts laid out by Le Roy and 
Malcorra and said that France believes that the UN is moving 
in the right direction.  He suggested that NATO-led 
peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan demonstrated the capacity 
of international peacekeeping coalitions to carry out 
complex, robust missions under UN mandates and offered UNSCR 
1856 (renewing the UNPKO in the Democratic Republic of the 
Congo) as an example of a UN mandate that clearly focuses a 
UNPKO on prioritized, achievable tasks.  Ripert said that 
France and the UK will revisit, under the UK Council 
presidency in August, their "three pillar initiative" on UN 
peacekeeping calling for improved UNPKO mandates with better 
progress benchmarks and New York-based command and control 
with the participation of a revitalized Military Staff 
Committee liaising with major troop contributors; 
implementation of complex mandates by means of clear 
prioritization and sequencing of tasks; and enhanced 
Council-Secretariat-TCC communication and more comprehensive 
operations and logistical capacity. 
 
¶8. (SBU) UK PermRep Sawers said he was interested in a Le Roy 
suggestion that a lead member state assume for each mission 
responsibility for coordinating international political and 
material support. He thought such an approach could be used 
profitably in particular in Security Sector Reform efforts 
where he felt UN peacekeepers were often inappropriately 
depended upon by countries hosting UNPKOs to provide local 
policing and security. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Russian Deputy PermRep Dolgov agreed with Ambassador 
Rice that precipitous and premature downsizing of missions 
can be counterproductive to overall peacekeeping efforts.  He 
seconded France's call for revitalization of the Military 
Staff Committee and its expansion to include all 15 Council 
 
USUN NEW Y 00000644  003 OF 004 
 
 
members.  China urged caution in deploying UNPKOs, insisting 
that there be "a peace to keep" before the Council authorized 
a UNPKO.  China also called for regional organizations, 
especially the African Union, be afforded a larger 
peacekeeping role. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Non-Permanent Five Council members shared the 
general approval of the Le Roy and Malcorra proposals with 
some members (notably Turkey and Austria) characterizing them 
as essentially a revisiting of the Brahimi Report 
recommendations (2000) and subsequent reform proposals. 
Most, particularly Costa Rica, focused on the interaction 
between the Council, TCCs, and the Secretariat and called for 
a more inclusive and transparent decision-making process on 
mandate formation.  Libya called for enhanced respect for the 
sovereignty of countries hosting UNPKOs and for "basic 
charter principles such as 'consent of the parties.'" 
 
Troop Contributors Sound Off -- But Cooperatively 
---------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Several non-Council members also participated. In a 
marked contrast from its confrontational intervention in a 
similar Council session earlier this year (reftel), Nigeria 
spoke of the continued "relevance of UN peacekeeping as an 
essential instrument for conflict resolution and peace 
making" and called for "strengthening of the triangular 
cooperation between the Security Council, the TCCs, and the 
Secretariat." 
 
¶12. (SBU) Speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement 
(NAM), Morocco urged greater involvement of TCCs/PCCs in all 
aspects of planning and carrying out peacekeeping missions, 
including during the policy formulation and decision-making 
phases and greater developed country burdensharing on troop 
deployment.  Morocco underscored that the "guiding 
principles" for peacekeeping operations should be consent of 
the parties, non-use of force except in self-defense, and 
impartiality. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Pakistan called "inconceivable" the idea that 
UNPKOs could succeed without making the Security Council-TCC 
partnership more substantive and visible.  Pakistan called 
for "enhanced and visible representation of major TCCs at 
highest level positions at headquarters and in the field," 
saying that command and control should not be limited to 
"dialogue" and "consultations." 
 
¶14. (SBU) India criticized the current practice of 
consultations between TCCs/PCCs and the Security Council as 
"pro forma," saying that discussions "skirt around 
substantive issues with little or no scope for meaningful 
discussion."  The Indian PermRep said that "being informed is 
not the same as being consulted" and, raising the idea of a 
gap between supply and demand for forces and equipment, added 
that "there is no scarcity of the personnel and capacities of 
the type the United Nations requires."  The problem, he said, 
is a "reluctance on the part of member states to make these 
resources available to the United Nations." 
 
¶15. (SBU)  In an apparent reference to the UK/France 
initiative, Brazil said higher financial costs for 
peacekeeping were the logical consequence of decisions made 
by the Council, and that closing missions that were still 
needed or avoiding establishing new missions should not be 
the response to financial problems. 
 
Other Large TCCs/PCCs 
--------------------- 
 
¶16.  (SBU) Jordan, Uruguay, Ghana, Egypt and Nepal echoed the 
remarks of other large troop contributors, calling for 
greater involvement of TCCs and PCCs in the preparation of 
mandates and the planning of operations.  Egypt called for 
the Security Council to refrain from the "micro-management" 
of the Secretariat's work, particularly in the area of 
selection of TCCs/PCCs" and suggested that the C-34 (UN 
Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations) should be the 
main body responsible for addressing UN peacekeeping 
operations.  Ghana called for strengthening African 
peacekeeping capabilities, and said that UNPKOs should remain 
in host countries until conflicts are fully resolved and the 
situation has returned to normalcy.  Jordan credited Japan's 
leadership of the Security Council's Working Group on 
Peacekeeping Operations with fostering confidence among UN 
 
USUN NEW Y 00000644  004 OF 004 
 
 
regional groups, and between regional groups and the Council. 
 
Czech EU Presidency 
------------------- 
¶17.  (SBU) The Czech Republic, on behalf of the European 
Union, acknowledged a need to improve and expand existing 
consultation mechanisms between the Council, the Secretariat 
and TCCs/PCCs.  The Czech PermRep suggested that the concept 
of a strategic-military cell, as had been used with the 
UNIFIL mission in Lebanon, could be a way to improve 
information flow between headquarters and TCCs and emphasized 
the EU view that UN peacekeeping operations should routinely 
incorporate the protection of civilians into its mandates. 
 
RICE