The aim of the workshop was to: Enhance mutual understanding of the principles and guidelines for the conduct of peace support operations at operational and tactical levels, through the proposal of workable solutions for existing problems and the recommendation of research projects to address those key problems/issues that could not be adequately addressed by the participants.

The Regional workshop on integrated principles for peace support operations was the second in a series of international events designed to promote conflict resolution, with particular reference to Africa. Some of the workshops are intended to address policy issues, and others to consider implementation. The first workshop — held in Prague in June — was on policy. The Harare workshop, attended by military experts, concentrated on implementation.

Informed by a number of background research papers, and by working systematically through ten designated tasks, the participants developed a significant number of ‘doctrinal statements’, or observations with doctrinal implications. Based on African operational experiences, these observations may be used to inform future doctrinal development.

The participants also identified a number of areas that could not be adequately addressed during the workshop, but which nevertheless merited further analysis. These were expressed as future academic research projects, along the line of the topics presented below.

Towards a comprehensive framework for analysing and clarifying the relationship between the various levels and loci of decisional authority during multinational PSOs



A comparative study of ‘manoeuverist’ and ‘non-manoeuverist’ approaches to command within PSOs: Past experience and future implications



Adopting the intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB) framework for the analysis of lessons learned from PSOs¹



Exploring linkages between the establishment of earmarked or standby forces, and the introduction of a training strategy based on common doctrine that emphasises the subordination of constituent units to the force commander



The application of ‘new operational approaches’ to PSOs in Africa, especially in the areas of force protection through improved RISTA,² and the improvement of communication skills and HUMINT techniques



An analysis of the real record of air forces employed in PSOs in Africa in recent years — and suggestions on the more effective utilisation of air assets in future African PSOs



A review of the impact of past PSOs and humanitarian operations on communities and local economies: Select case studies from Africa



A review of logistic support for forces employed in PSOs in Africa in recent years, with recommendations on making sustainment more cost-effective³



Examining the real record and the potential contribution of African conflict resolution mechanisms: Implications for emerging PSO doctrine



The potential for African regional contributions to extraregional PSOs



Towards a relevant and acceptable approach to military-humanitarian joint contingency planning for future PSOs in Africa⁴



Assisting the media in likely troop-contributing states (and elsewhere) to understand the military component of PSOs, their limitations, methods, and problems



The challenges of public information in the host nation of African PSOs: Means to enhance basic communication at the operational level



Ways of adapting national military doctrines to the different media engagement demands of PSOs, and additional training required by commanders and staffs to work effectively in the media spotlight



Emerging methods of deterrence and strategic coercion available to the international community: Are they effective and valid in the African context?

In addition to a focus on this ‘unfinished business’, the question of broadening and deepening the process was also considered. It was felt that there should be a deliberate effort to consolidate the process of consensus-building and to expand on new ideas. There was agreement that the widening process should result in the early inclusion of West African experts in the debate, and the imperative for engaging Francophone West African countries was recognised by all.

Importantly, 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. 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. It was therefore proposed that Colonel Philip Wilkinson should draft a version of his Peace Support Operations doctrine as a basis for future work on 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, of the doctrinal ideas developed at this workshop.

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 select African command and staff colleges (and relevant African research institutions). These institutions will be invited to engage in the process of reviewing and refining the working draft, as part of an interactive process of peer review and refinement that will hopefully lead to greater consensus on PSO doctrine across Africa.

NOTES

It was agreed that a paper on the IPB lesson learned methodology should be circulated as a research paper at a future workshop.



RISTA (Reconnaissance, Intelligence, Surveillance and Target Acquisition) integrates the human intelligence (HUMINT) element into the holistic concept of intelligence. RISTA is a joint operation to link sensors, acquisition systems and reconnaissance directly to offensive or defensive strike assets which can be cued by them. Surveillance is the continual collection of information, usually across a wide geographical spectrum; reconnaissance is directed at specific targets. Ground reconnaissance includes scouting and screening. RISTA is a specifically focused concept that directs offensive action. But many of the systems involved will have wider roles; reconnaissance will serve the commander’s information requirements and intelligence agencies will collect against a broader remit.



This research may be linked to the notion of subregional contingency planning and stockpiling.



This may be informed by a comparative case study of good, bad and non-existent military/aid agency co-operation in three African crises – for example, in Liberia, Somalia and Guinea Bissau.