Our Focus:
The United States Government’s Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) program helps build sustainable, indigenous peacekeeping training capacities in partner countries so they can contribute to United Nations and other regional peacekeeping operations. GPOI-funded activities particularly focus on the establishment and strengthening of partner countries’ training infrastructures, focusing on both military troops and formed police units, where appropriate. Further, the GPOI program helps to enhance coordination and collaboration between various US and other contributor countries’ diplomatic and assistance efforts, to include providing support to deploying units (e.g., technical assistance and pre-deployment training).

Promoting Peacekeeping in the Asia-Pacific
Posted by Walter D. Givhan / October 09, 2011

Major General Walter D. Givhan is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Plans, Programs, and Operations in Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.

We have seen a dramatic growth in global demand for soldiers, police officers, and diplomats to serve on international peacekeeping missions needed to stabilize some of the world's most challenging hotspots. The United States is helping to meet that need through the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), an effort that has made significant progress toward addressing this demand by working with our international partners to deliver the tools and training peacekeepers require for these critical missions.

In a recent visit to Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia, I had a chance to see how GPOI has supported our Asia-Pacific partners in their efforts to train and develop a new generation of leaders for the increasingly complex peacekeeping missions of tomorrow. The United States has long been the world's top financial contributor to United Nations peacekeeping operations, providing on average more than one quarter of the international organization's budget to support more than 100,000 "blue berets," military, police, and civilians working to secure the peace and protect at-risk populations in 16 peacekeeping missions around the world. In 2005, GPOI was launched to expand U.S. support for peacekeeping by providing training, equipment, and other support to 59 partner countries and regional organizations.

I began my trip in Japan, where my team took part in a graduation ceremony of the GPOI's Senior Mission Leaders Course in Tokyo. The Senior Mission Leaders Course is a collaborative multinational effort to increase the number of leaders available for future missions, and one component of a larger effort in growing peacekeeping partner countries' capacity and capabilities. The ultimate goal is to help our partners create their own self-sustaining peacekeeping capabilities, so that they can join in international efforts to help fragile states recover from conflict and rebuild.

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