Crs Report for Congress - The Global Peace Operations Initiative: Background and Issues for Congress: March 19, 2009 - Rl32773 (Paperback)

The 111th Congress may consider extending the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), the centerpiece of the Bush Administrations efforts to prepare foreign security forces to participate in international peacekeeping operations. Established in mid-2004, GPOI is a multilateral, five-year program with planned U.S. contributions of some $660 million from FY2005 through FY2009. GPOI's primary purpose is to train and equip 75,000 military troops, a majority of them African, for peacekeeping operations by 2010. GPOI also provides support for the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU), an Italian training center for gendarme (constabulary police) forces in Vicenza, Italy. In addition, GPOI is promoting the development of an international transportation and logistics support system for peacekeepers, and is encouraging an information exchange to improve international coordination of peace operations training and exercises in Africa. In June 2004, G8 leaders pledged to support the goals of the initiative. GPOI incorporates previous capabilities-building programs for Africa. From FY1997 to FY2005, the United States spent just over $121 million on GPOI's predecessor program that was funded through the State Department Peacekeeping (PKO) account: the Clinton Administration's African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) and its successor, the Bush Administrations's African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) ...