Future of Peace Operations Program
Increasing Global Preparedness to Protect Civilians from Mass Atrocities
This project of the Future of Peace Operations program at the Henry L. Stimson Center focuses on working with the United Nations, the African Union, and other regional organizations to strengthen the capacity and preparation of military forces to successfully protect civilians from genocide and mass atrocities. The project is led by Stimson Research Fellow Alison Giffen, and is made possible through the generous support of Humanity United and the MacArthur Foundation.
One Page Description of Project
EVENTS: Holt Addresses UN Security Council | Wilton Park Conference | Auschwitz Seminar | Genocide Prevention Task Force Releases Report | Roundtable on Protection Strategies | ICG-UNU Event at UN | Stimson Workshop in Ghana | Workshop With African Civil Society
PUBLICATIONS: Halting Widespread or Systematic Attacks Against Civilians | The Impossible Mandate Book | Civilian Protection Publications | Spotlight Analyses
MEDIA: Voice on Genocide Prevention Podcast | "No More Rwandas" Radio Show
RESOURCES: Global Helicopter Inventory | Security Council Mandates | Military Doctrine | Additional Sources
Victoria Holt Addresses UN Security Council:
On 11 June 2008, FOPO co-director Victoria Holt spoke before all 15 members of the United Nations Security Council on the role of military peacekeepers in protecting civilians from sexual violence during armed conflict. The meeting followed the "Arria Formula," a format intended to increase Council access to information from experts outside of governments and international organizations.
This Arria meeting was organized by the United Kingdom's Mission to the UN to complement the 19 June debate on sexual violence in conflict, a debate organized by the United States during its June tenure as President of the Security Council. During that debate, chaired by US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, the Council approved the landmark resolution 1820. For the first time, this resolution designated sexual violence during armed conflict to be an international security concern, thereby establishing unequivocally that this form of violence warrants attention and action by the Security Council.
Click here to read Security Council Resolution 1820
WILTON PARK CONFERENCE:
FOPO co-director Victoria Holt participated in a landmark conference on the protection of women from sexual and gender-based violence during conflict, held in May 2008 at the United Kingdom's Wilton Park. The conference, titled “Women Targeted or Affected by Armed Conflict: What Role for Military Peacekeepers?”, was co-sponsored by the UN Development Fund for Women and the UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations. Holt spoke on a panel titled “Perspectives on Protecting Women Against Violence in Contemporary Conflicts: Military Responses,” along with Lieutenant General Jasbir Singh Lidder, the former Force Commander for the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).
Conference participants included current ambassadors to the UN, including US Permanent Representative Zalmay Khalilzad; ambassadors from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), United Kingdom, Canada, and Ghana; former UN force commanders from India, Nigeria, and the Netherlands; current DPKO and UN project staff; and current and former UN peacekeepers (military and police), including Michael Fryer, the police commissioner for the AU-UN Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).
Click here for the conference program and report.
Auschwitz Institute For Peace and Reconciliation:
In May 2008, FOPO Research Analyst Joshua Smith travelled to Auschwitz, Poland to participate in the inaugural session of the Raphael Lemkin Seminar Series for Genocide Prevention. The event brought together 20 foreign service and diplomatic professionals from more that a dozen countries, as well as leading genocide scholars, for a week of courses, discussion, and reflection on the causes of genocide and possible policy responses. Smith led a discussion on some of the military options available to outside actors to prevent and respond to genocide and mass atrocities, drawing on past cases to illuminate the concepts, challenges, trade-offs, and requirements of various options.
Africa Research Trip:
VISIT to African Union and ECOWAS Headquarters
In April 2008, FOPO co-director Victoria Holt and Research Analyst Joshua Smith traveled to Abuja, Nigeria and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as part of a delegation representing the Genocide Prevention Task Force. The purpose of the trip was to meet with officials of the African Union (AU) and Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) about the prevention of genocide on the continent. Discussions focused on capacity-building initiatives in the areas of early warning, mediation, and the development of standby forces to respond to mass violence against civilians.
Stimson Workshop in Ghana:
Halting Widespread or Systematic Attacks on Civilians
The Stimson Center and the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center hosted a high-level workshop held in Accra, Ghana that brought together senior military officers with experience in peace operations to address the military options for protecting civilians at risk of violence.
Download full Workshop Report: Halting Widespread or Systematic Attacks on Civilians: Military Strategies and Operational Concepts
PODCAST:
"VOICES ON GENOCIDE PREVENTION" PODCAST
On 7 December 2007, FOPO co-director Victoria Holt was interviewed by In this interview, she discusses the challenges that peacekeeping forces have faced in genocidal situations, and what that implies for the hybrid UN-AU force in Darfur and for the future.
Genocide Prevention TASK FORCE Releases report:
Genocide Prevention Task Force, Co-Chaired By Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, Releases Report
FOPO co-director Victoria Holt was the Chair of the Military Intervention Expert Group for the Genocide Prevention Task Force. Jointly organized by the American Academy of Diplomacy, the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the United States Institute of
Peace, the Task Force was established to evaluate and improve the U.S. government's capacity to address genocide and mass atrocities. The recently released report considers the role of early warning, pre-crisis engagement, preventive diplomacy, military intervention, and international institutions in preventing genocide, and provides a blueprint to enable future U.S. action.
Stimson ROUNDTABLE on Protection Strategies:
Protecting Civilians from Mass Atrocities:
Strategies, Safe Areas, and Lessons From the Field
On 23 October 2007, the Future of Peace Operations program hosted a roundtable exploring specific missions and strategies aimed at protecting civilians from physical harm, including lessons from “humanitarian interventions” in the 1990s; the use of “safe areas” such as in Northern Iraq and the Balkans; and recent experiences in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the UN mission (MONUC) has developed unique and innovative strategies to prevent and respond to widespread attacks against civilians.
ICG-UNU EVENT AT UNITED NATIONS:
Preventing Mass Atrocities: From Mandate to Realization
On 10 October 2007, Senior Associate Victoria Holt took part in a conference, "Preventing Mass Atrocities: From Mandate to Realizationation," at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The event, sponsored by the International Crisis Group and the UN University, included presentations from Jean-Marie Guehenno (Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping) and Francis Deng (Special Advidor on the Prevention of Genocide). Holt spoke about the operational challenges facing UN missions, such as the newly authorized AU-UN Hybrid Force in Darfur, attempting to protect civilians in volatile environments.
Stimson Center Book: 
The Impossible Mandate?
Military Preparedness,
the Responsibility to Protect,
and Modern Peace Operations
by Victoria K. Holt and Tobias C. Berkman
This book from the Future of Peace Operations Program addresses the question of whether the world is prepared to use military force to protect civilians from mass violence?
In an effort to publicize the gaps identified by this book, the Stimson Center and Foreign Affairs Canada sponsored book launches in Washington, Ottowa, New York, Brussels, and London. All of these events were well attended and brought together practitioners and scholars from diverse fields. Many of the military officers that attended acknowledged the importance of better training and guidance that militaries around the world require to effectively operationalize the responsibility to protect.
To read Mary Kaldor's review in the August-September 2008 edition of Survival, click here.
RADIO SHOW:
No More Rwandas: Protecting the Innocents
Victoria K. Holt comments during an in-depth radio program that discusses the recent attempts to develop strategies to combat genocide and other mass attacks on civilians.
Workshop with African Civil Society:
Responsibility to Protect in Africa
In October 2006, the Future of Peace Operations program participated in a workshop to discuss strategies for garnering political will among regional leaders for the "responsibility to protect" in Africa.
Civilian Protection Publications
Military and Civilian Protection: Developing Roles and Capacities
This chapter, by Victoria K. Holt, drawn from a research report released by the Humanitarian Policy Group, explores these questions and traces the evolution of military roles related to the protection of civilians in the midst of conflict.
The Responsibility to Protect:
Considering the Operational Capacity for Civilian Protection
This draft working paper by Victoria K. Holt addresses national militaries' and international organizations' operational capacity to protect civilians from genocide, ethnic cleansing, and mass death. It was revised in January 2005 following a workshop held at the Stimson Center in December 2004 that brought together military leaders, scholars, and humanitarians.
Spotlight Analyses
As part of the Stimson Center's commitment to offering timely analysis of current global issues and challenges, two new short opinion pieces are presented on the website each week. The following are Spotlight Analysis pieces related to the preventing and halting genocide and mass atrocities against civilians.
The situation in the DRC demonstrates that rebuilding failed states requires more force and resources than the UN can muster. If the international community is serious about protecting civilians from civil violence, it must drop the pretense of impartiality, develop a concrete objective, and pursue it with the requisite resources.
Why “Do Something” is Not a
Strategy
By Victoria K. Holt
The DRC: Bush's Missed Opportunity in Africa
By Katherine N. Andrews
While in Africa recently, President Bush was moved by memorials to the
Rwandan genocide and urged world leaders to resolve the
Finally…a UN Mission in Darfur: The First Step in a Long, Difficult Journey
by Kristine St. Pierre and Joshua G. Smith
September 26, 2007
In his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, President Bush called on the UN to “live up to its promise to promptly deploy peacekeeping forces to Darfur.” Getting the forces deployed, however, is the easy part compared to the challenges that lie ahead.
No Time to Think: Military Leaders & Halting Mass Atrocities
by Victoria K. Holt
June 26, 2007
Without advance preparation to support deployed forces, missions that encounter physical threats to civilian populations too often must make up strategies on the ground - and hope for the best.
Darfur, Iraq or Rwanda: What Can Militaries do to Protect Civilians?
by Victoria K. Holt and Joshua G. Smith
April 26, 2007
What do Sudan and Iraq have in common? In both countries, international military forces are grappling with the question of how best to protect civilians from extreme levels of violence and mass atrocities. As international ambitions grow to embrace a responsibility to protect civilians from genocide and such violence, however, much work is needed to translate this goal into reality.
RESOURCES
Global Helicopter Inventory: Amidst the ongoing challenge of securing the 24 helicopters needed by the United Nations-African Union hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur, FOPO compiled an inventory of transport and attack helicopters available globally. (Data compiled from The Military Balance, published annually by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.)
United Nations Security Council Mandates: A review of UN Security Council resolutions providing mandates that involve or imply protection of civilians for missions led by the United Nations, multinational forces, or individual countries. (This document is included as an annex to FOPO's October 2006 book, The Impossible Mandate? Military Preparedness, the Responsibility to Protect, and Modern Peace Operations.)
Military Doctrine: A list of doctrinal documents on peace and stability operations available online from the US, UN, NATO, and foreign governments.
Background on the Project
The Stimson Center’s Future of Peace Operations program launched a new initiative in fall of 2007 to help translate growing aspirations for protecting civilians from mass violence into concrete, effective and sustainable action. In 2005, nations at the UN World Summit embraced the idea that countries have a “responsibility to protect” civilians from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. Yet fundamental gaps remain between the international community’s ambitions to prevent such violence and its ability to respond effectively to halt mass atrocities. Contrary to widespread perception, civilian protection has notbeen a traditional task for peacekeeping forces or most militaries. Nations and multinational organizations still need to translate ambitions into plans and tools (including guidance, doctrine, training, leadership skills, etc.) and prepare their political and military leaders for such missions.
This project is looking at what can be done to close that gap, strengthen the capacity to respond, and move to a world where nations embrace—and carry out—their responsibility to protect. Stimson will build on its previous research, publications and outreach since 2004 looking at the gaps in preparedness of peacekeepers or military forces to prevent or halt mass violence against civilians.Stimson will work to strengthen recognition by political and military leaders of the need to address physical protection in future missions; to look at existing strategies for peacekeeping and military missions for operations with mandates to protect civilians; and to support more effective action by organizations that can field such missions. The project will seek to create a network of experts and practitioners engaged within multinational organizations, primarily the United Nations, the African Union and Economic Community of West African States, as well as within NATO and the European Union, to address this question and support their development of capacities. Stimson will also collaborate with experts and practitioners to identify strategies that have worked—or failed—to better understand the options and strategies applicable to such operations, part of improving existing tools to better prepare for missions to halt genocide and atrocities.
Project activities include:
- Consultations with key nations and actors in the United Nations, African Union, ECOWAS, and other multinational organizations;
- Hosting a series of roundtables in Washington, DC;
- Developing a field study to a UN mission where civilians face the threat of mass atrocities;
- Helping sponsor a workshop to develop new operational strategies for responding to mass atrocities; and
- Analyzing challenges and reporting on progress in addressing international preparation for such missions.
The program welcomes inquiries, comments, and collaboration. For more information on this project or previous work in this field, please contact: Stimson Senior Associate Victoria Holt (vholt@stimson.org, 202.478.3431) or Research Associate Katherine Andrews (kandrews@stimson.org, 202.478.3427) of the Future of Peace Operations program.