GENERAL DISCUSSION OF TASKS 1-10 AND THE WAY AHEAD

138. By working fairly systematically through tasks 1-10, the workshop managed to come up with a significant number of ‘doctrinal statements’, or observations with doctrinal implications, based on African operational experience, that should inform future doctrinal development. The participants also identified a number of areas that could not be adequately addressed during the workshop, but that nevertheless merited further analysis. These have been expressed as future academic research projects that may also inform future doctrinal work for PSOs. It was generally agreed that this was an excellent ‘first bite’ at the problem of reaching consensus on integrated principles and guidelines for peace support, but that participants should also express some clear ideas on carrying the process forward.

139. It was felt that there should be a vision of immediate, short and longer term actions to consolidate the process of consensus-building and to expand on new ideas. The question of broadening and deepening the process also needs consideration, as do issues of funding and commitment.

140. Immediate actions were noted as the early drafting and distribution of a consolidated workshop report that would inform the upcoming international workshop to be held in Pretoria during October 1999. This would transfer ideas from the operational level of thinking to the academic and conceptual levels, hopefully with cognisance also taken by relevant political actors. Alternating the levels of engagement in this debate was seen as a positive strategy for deepening consensus.

141. There was consensus that the widening process should result in the early inclusion of West African experts in the debate. Nigeria was pertinently mentioned as an important lead nation for African regional PSOs, and the imperative for engaging Francophone West African countries was recognised by all. Ideally, deliberations should extend to all regions and language groupings in Africa — but it was agreed that this must be preceded by a deepening and consolidation of tentative gains, lest these be lost through premature ‘over-reach’. The publication of African doctrine-related research was mentioned as key to the deepening process, and staff colleges and relevant African academics were encouraged to address some of the research topics suggested in this report.

142. It was also agreed that real progress would demand more than a few new interesting but disintegrated doctrinal statements emanating from academic research papers. Indeed, the workshop itself had delivered a significant number of doctrinal statements, but something needs to be done to integrate such ideas into a coherent body of thought on military doctrine for PSOs. If this step is not taken, an ever-widening debate will continue that goes nowhere as an attempt is made to reinvent a wheel that can be termed ‘African’ with extant peacekeeping doctrine.

143. Participants agreed that extant traditional peacekeeping doctrine is not sufficiently robust to confront the new challenges of conflict resolution in Africa, and that war-fighting doctrine is overly destructive. Furthermore war-fighting doctrine is predicated upon the defeat of a designated enemy and does not address the peacebuilding and reconciliation challenges necessary to create a secure and self-sustaining society and environment.

144. Extant PSO doctrine goes a long way in filling the doctrinal lacuna between traditional peacekeeping and war-fighting, but needs to be updated and modified to suit the realities of Africa. Many of the areas for modification have been identified in the course of this workshop and could now be worked into extant PSO doctrine. But this would require significant doctrinal expertise and a commitment by someone to proceed with the drafting process.

145. It was therefore proposed that Colonel Philip Wilkinson should draft a version of his Peace support operations doctrine as a basis for future work in a doctrine appropriate for the African context. This draft will take account of the special needs of PSOs in the African context and, in detail, the doctrinal ideas developed at this workshop.

146. The product of this endeavour will be in the form of a working draft that will be forwarded to the ISS by November 1999, for circulation to selected African command and staff colleges (and relevant African research institutions). This product will then be owned by all those staff colleges that engage in the process of reviewing and refining the working draft. The aspiration is to begin an interactive process of peer review and refinement that will lead to greater consensus on PSO doctrine across Africa, which, in turn, should influence decision-making and training on the continent.

147. It was agreed that the envisaged working draft should be in circulation for approximately three months, before a workshop is convened to discuss possible amendments/refinements to this draft. Although a fairly short-term goal, this workshop may already include an element of widening through the inclusion of experts from West Africa.

148. Thus the action-oriented vision of the workshop participants extends some six months into the future — to February/March 2000. Longer-term vision will only come into focus when this momentum converts into funding pledges and a broad commitment to the process by concerned parties — both African and non-African.