Building Civilian Capacities from the Western Balkans in Peace Support Operations

Western Balkans countries are already contributing troops to global peacekeeping efforts.

Some of these states have also expressed policy intent to step up their contributions to multilateral peace support operations through the use of civilian capacities.

This comes as a reflection of a global trend, where, with the evolution of the UN peacekeeping mandate, the role of civilians has shifted from a peripheral support role to the heart of contemporary peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations.

The aim of the civilian component is to fill the gap, performing functions not best suited for the military, e.g. in post conflict reconstruction and institutional reform.

The civilian components are thus key for fulfilling the broad mandates of today’s missions, and typically include the strengthening of rule of law – including the judiciary, prisons management and legal reform; security sector reform – including both military and police and legal reform, compliance with human rights norms; support to arranging elections; and other types of sectoral expertise.

The European Union is structured in a similar manner, and the use of civilian capacities as a tool in crisis management is today an integrated part of the EU Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). 

Also within OSCE and NATO operations a wide range of civilian experts are supporting the rebuilding of civilian institutions in the aftermath of conflict.

NUPI and BCSP, as partners in the project “Building Civilian Capacities from the Western Balkans in Peace Support Operations”, supported by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, based on continued political interest in civilian capacities in peace support operations, selected four countries for conducting the project.

In all these states, there is a lack of knowledge and expertise in developing enabling policies and management processes, training, rostering and deployment of civilians to international or bilateral peacekeeping missions and peacebuilding initiatives. These shortcomings are hampering the ability to implement what is stated as policy intent. There is still a great gap between the policy intent of providing civilian capacities to peace support operations, and putting this into practice. 

The goal of this project was to strengthen the knowledge of relevant stakeholders in the respective governments of policy options going forward to realize the ambition of deploying civilians, and support capacity development of the states to roster, train and deploy civilian capacities. This was done through the provision of policy options, background notes, and facilitation of input by other seasoned actors in this field. Further building of capacities was achieved by sending civilian representatives to visit ongoing missions and get firsthand experience.

Results

Strengthening of the knowledge of relevant stakeholders

Special issue of Journal of Regional Security on civilian capacity was peer reviewed and published. Also, stakeholders were familiarized with policy papers in English and in national languages on country profiles of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Albania and Macedonia. Experience of Finland, The Netherlands, Slovenia and Germany in developing civilian capacity management was presented in four studies. These educational publications providing comparative solutions for institutionalization of civilian capacity were requested by state authorities participating in this activity (primarily Serbian MFA, Bosnian Expert Team). Throughout the project, there has been substantive debate in Croatia regarding Draft law on participation of civilian experts in peace operations. In order to contribute to the public debate Centre for Peace Studies from Zagreb did analysis of Draft Law, offering recommendations for improving legal solutions for Civilian Participation in Multinational Operations. In Serbia during public debate on a Draft law on police, BCSP submitted amendments that will ensure labour rights of policemen in peace operations and in diplomatic missions.

Field visit to a peace support operation.

The first visit to UNFICYP mission in Cyprus was conducted on 25-27th May 2015. Delegation of WB representatives was composed of Marko Milosevic (BCSP), John Karlsrud (NUPI), Milan Milošević (Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia), Igor Kuželka (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia), Gordan Bosanac  (Center for Peace Studies from Zagreb), Igor Tabak (OBRIS), Denis Hadžović (Center for Security Studies from Sarajevo), Ankica Tomić (Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Andreja Bogdanovski (Analytica from Skopje). The aim of the visit was to gain first-hand information about the participation in peace operations through civilian components.

Regional and national meetings and seminars

Organisation of regional annual seminars and national events enabled sharing the experiences, exchanging the views and strengthening the commitment of local stakeholders to take more decisive actions towards developing policies, training, rostering and deployment of civilians to international or bilateral peacekeeping missions and peace-building initiatives.

The first annual seminar was held during Belgrade Security Forum on 2 October 2014. Experiences of Western Balkan countries in improving civilian capacities were subject of the talk at the Special Side Event of BSF under titleHow can Western Balkans further Contribute to Peacekeeping and Stability Missions?The Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office in Belgrade attended this panel and got interested in project’s achievements. This ensured the place in UN meeting in Sarajevo “Regional Cooperation for Peace Operations” on 2^nd June 2015.

An awareness raising presentation was held in Belgrade in October 21^st, 2014 for representatives of UN, UN DPKO, SEESAC and International Peace Institute. UN team closely monitored the project team’s work after Belgrade Security Forum. The cooperation was beneficial, as their representatives were also attending the second training and awareness seminar in in Sarajevo on 11-12^th May 2015, organized in partnership with Centre for Security Studies, with the support of Bosnian Government Expert Team. This event enabled exchanging good regional practices, such as presentation of Croatian draft law on civilian participation in peace operations, Serbian bylaws that regulates labour and insurance rights and Norwegian experience with NORDEM rosters. Participants of the event drafted joint declaration and Bosnian delegation showed commitment to create “Road map of Bosnian CIVCAP” and develop necessary secondary legislation.  

BCSP organised second regional meeting during Belgrade Security Forum on 12 October 2014. Experiences of EU and Western Balkan countries in improving civilian capacities were subject of the talk at the Expert Panel Discussion of BSF under titleEnhancing Participation of Civilian Experts to Peace Operations. This expert panel discussion was organised in partnership with Ministry of Defence. This event gathered civilian experts from EU counties and WB region, state practitioners from WB countries and representatives of civil society and international community with the aim to initiate the debate about creating effective regional model for training and deploying civilians to peace operations in the most cost effective way.