GERMANY: OPEN TO GREATER COOPERATION WITH THE U.S.

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