(U) S/CRS HERBST MEETS WITH DFID AND FCO OFFICIALS

UNCLAS LONDON 007206

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR S/CRS, AF/SPG, AF/SE, SCA/INS, AF/C, AF/W,
NEA/ELA, SCA/A

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL EAID UK
SUBJECT: (U) S/CRS HERBST MEETS WITH DFID AND FCO OFFICIALS


(U) SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. NOT FOR
INTERNET DISTRIBUTION.


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: S/CRS Ambassador John Herbst met in
London October 5 with the UK's Department for International
Development (DFID) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
In both meetings, the two sides updated each other on their
respective efforts to improve coordination of the civilian
aspects of reconstruction and stabilization efforts abroad.
At FCO, they discussed how to make the October 10 G8 meeting
in Moscow as productive as possible, and touched upon
activities both governments are undertaking in the field.
Both sides agreed to stay in touch, and Ambassador Herbst
particularly encouraged cross-training between his staff and
UK counterparts. END SUMMARY.

(U) DFID
--------------


2. (SBU) Prior to meetings in London, Ambassador Herbst had
already met with Richard Teuten, head of the Post-Conflict
Reconstruction Unit (PCRU) and his team on the margins of a
conference they all attended October 3-4 at Wilton Park, the
FCO conference center in West Sussex. (NOTE: PCRU is the
UK's counterpart to S/CRS; it is a joint venture of FCO, MOD
and DFID. END NOTE.) On October 5, Ambassador Herbst came
to London to meet with Jim Drummond, Director of DFID's UN,
Conflict and Humanitarian Division. Ambassador Herbst
briefed on S/CRS and his plans for the coming two years.
Drummond's main points:

- He chairs the board that oversees PCRU and manages the UK's
Global Conflict Prevention Pool (GCPP, an interagency fund of
FCO, DFID and MOD, covers all the world except Africa, which
has a separate Pool managed by the Africa Department);

- PCRU is a "child of Iraq" but is expected to also address
smaller stabilization and reconstruction (S&R) challenges;

- PCRU was not intended to deal with Iraq or Afghanistan but
it is active in Basrah (Iraq),Helmand and Kabul
(Afghanistan),and "a bit in Darfur"; it also sent a team to
Lebanon;

- Around 160 DFID staff have volunteered for a Crisis
Response Pool which has not been used operationally yet;

- A database of 300 - 400 experts is being compiled, although
it is difficult to find qualified people to lead the teams;

- Policy lead remains with the various government
departments; PCRU is a service provider and center of
expertise;

- The UK has pressed UN Deputy SYG Mark Malloch Brown to get
the Peacebuilding Commission up and running; Burundi and
Sierra Leone will be the first two countries the Commission
deals with; and

- The UK is considering how much it will contribute to the UN
Peacebuilding Fund that will be launched October 10-11.

(U) FCO
--------------


3. (SBU) Ambassador Herbst then proceeded to FCO, where Joan
Link, head of the FCO Conflict Issues Group (CIG),chaired a
two-hour meeting in two parts. The first focused on
multilateral aspects of S&R, with the participation of Link's
Deputy, Matthew Johnson; CIG Team Leaders Rob Holland
(International Secondments),David Lelliott (Conflict
Prevention) and David Belgrove (Peacekeeping and
Peacebuilding); David Arkley (Operations and Exercises team
of the Security Policy Group); Peter O'Rourke (Security
Policy Team Leader of the Afghanistan Group); and Jennifer
Cole (Civilian Crisis Management Team Leader of the Europe
Directorate's Common Foreign and Security Policy Group).
Again, Ambassador Herbst briefed on S/CRS and his plans for
the coming two years. His hosts' main points:

- Stephen Pattison, FCO International Security Director, is

the senior official who oversees the CIG; his portfolio
includes International Organizations and Human Rights and
Governance; he would have chaired this meeting if he were not
out of the country;

- The UK is keen on rule-of-law aspects of S&R - specifically
police and justice issues;

- CIG manages the 100 million British Pound Sterling (BPS)
Global Conflict Prevention Pool at the macro level (that is,
it allocates budgets totalling 100 million BPS/year),and
serves the same function for the UK's contributions to
peacekeeping (UN assessments of about 350 million BPS/year
and voluntary contributions of about 100 million BPS/year);

- The UK sees potential in the UN Peacebuilding Commission
and wants to identify three priority areas for concrete
action by the Commission in each of the two selected
countries (Burundi and Sierra Leone); one thing the
Commission could do would be to press development agencies to
support short-term job programs to address the huge problem
of youth unemployment, drawing on the S/CRS-Harvard study;

- Under the EU's Security and Defense Policy (ESDP),Rapid
Response Teams are being formed that should be able to field
100 trained experts as of next year; the EU is open to
building a surge capacity and demonstrated in Lebanon that it
was willing to cut through the usual rules and move more
quickly;

- CIG is trying to identify who in the UK does conflict
analysis and early warning, so as to move towards more
consistent methodology and terminology; through the Cabinet
Office it is plugging into the U.S. system for conflict
analysis and early warning.

(U) MOSCOW G8 MEETING OCT. 10
--------------


4. (SBU) Turning to the October 10 G8 meeting in Moscow,
Ambassador Herbst noted that he would be arriving by 1:00
p.m. October 9 and hoped to meet with other delegation heads
that day, to try to push the G8 S&R agenda forward as much as
possible. For instance, the G8 might:

- propose that G8 members and the EU and the UN participate
in joint training with the U.S., UK and Canada;

- create a website clearinghouse accessible to anyone, for
stability and reconstruction materials; and

- expand the curriculum at the Italian police training center
to include additional security issues.

Link welcomed these ideas and Ambassador Herbst's inclusive
vision, notably his assurance that the USG sees a role too
for the UN. She stressed the importance of including NATO in
coordination efforts along with the EU and UN (Darfur being
the case in point). Unfortunately, she said, Pattison would
arrive in Moscow too late to meet October 9, but she would
make sure he was fully briefed on these ideas.

(U) ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD
--------------


5. (SBU) Link then brought into the meeting FCO desk
officers for Nepal, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Sudan.

- On Lebanon: PCRU has found a niche, identifying bridges
(destroyed by Israel to prevent Hizbollah resupply, but
hampering humanitarian movements as well) as a key need, and
providing five temporary bridges that are now in use. The UK
has provided 22.5 million GBS for humanitarian reconstruction
and 2.5 million for security sector reform. It also
undertook a study to identify equipment and training needs
for the Lebanese Armed Forces and match those needs to
potential donors. The fact that the GCPP and PCRU were in
place helped the UK move quickly.

- On Afghanistan: It has been a real struggle to find enough
international civilian police (civpol). CIG has done helpful
work systematizing policies and procedures for civpol
deployments.

- On Nepal: FCO and PCRU are still in the early stages of
exploring how PCRU may be able to help.

- On Darfur: CIG has helped find military observers for the
African Union (AU)'s AMIS peacekeeping mission, and police
for the EU's civpol mission in support of AMIS. PCRU helped
find public-relations consultants to help inform the
population of Darfur about the Darfur Peace Agreement and try
to build support for it; this activity was carried out by the
AU, and the Netherlands contributed to the funding.

(U) STRENGTHENING TIES
--------------


6. (U) Both sides agreed on the importance of staying in
close contact. Ambassador Herbst shared a copy of the
synopsis of a BearingPoint study on creating a Civilian
Reserve Corps of up to 3,500 experts. He also shared lists
of training courses offered by S/CRS, reiterating his desire
for cross-training between his staff and UK counterparts,
which Link welcomed. He extended to CIG the invitation he
had made to PCRU to visit Washington and the U.S. Joint
Forces Command.


7. (U) Ambassador Herbst has cleared this cable.

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