CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Remarks by United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping
Operations
Jean-Marie Guéhenno
Cooperation on Peace Operations: The role of Japan and Asia
Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) forum
Tokyo, Japan, 2 June 2008

I.

INTRODUCTION

Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here with you today. I would like to express
my deepest gratitude to the Japan Institute of International Affairs forextending me this invitation. I am honored to be here and to have thisopportunity to share a few thoughts with you.

II.

EVOLUTION AND CURRENT STATUS OF PEACEKEEPING

Within the United Nations, peacekeeping now represents a central
mechanism for resolving armed conflict within the international system. We
are proud of our record, but it has been won at a hard price.

UN peacekeeping has played a key role in stabilizing a significant number ofcountries in the past three decades, among them Cambodia, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Namibia, Mozambique, Tajikistan, Croatia, and the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. And we are making progress right now inmany more countries, including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burundi, Haiti, Timor
Leste, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and others where UN peace1operations are helping societies close long chapters of conflict and return tonormal development.

To do this work over 88,000 troops and police and some 21,000 civilians
currently serve in 20 peace operations across four continents in a dozen
different time zones. Including our new missions, the budget for UN
peacekeeping operations will soon reach $7 billion supporting a total of over
110,000 police, military and civilian authorised personnel deployed in thefield. And our expansion is not only extensive, it is unremitting. In thealmost eight years that I have served as the Head of United Nations
Peacekeeping, we have launched ten new operations and dramaticallyexpanded two others.

This is a new UN; one that has not received so much attention in this part of
the world. UN peacekeeping is the international community’s instrument ofchoice in addressing over half of the 30 or so major armed conflicts
currently ongoing around the globe.

The changes in the UN peacekeeping system are not just quantitative.
Modern peacekeeping has also been marked by the establishment ofcomplex and multidimensional operations. Today’s peacekeepers are called
upon to do much more than monitor and observe cease fires or borderviolations.

When World War II ended, approximately half of the world’s conflicts wereeither anti-colonial or inter-state wars. In the post-Cold War era, conflicts
have largely disappeared, replaced instead with situations that tend to be2

associated with the disintegration of central authority in poor or weak states.
Ideology, regular armed forces with clear chains of command, distinctions
between soldiers and bandits, and between fighters and civilians – all thesedistinctions are being eroded. These are often wars of chaos – in Japanese I
understand this is called “Ran”. And they require a new type of response.

Today’s peacekeeping is therefore less about purely military matters than it
is about enabling the broader transition from chaos to sustainable peace.
The peacekeepers accompany and support peace agreements, with theconsent of the parties, although this sometimes requires the use of force
against those marginal elements which have put themselves outside of apeace agreement. However, force means nothing by itself in this modern
context. It has to be embedded in a wider, fundamentally political effort tohelp rebuild legitimate government, promote the rule of law, establish andmaintain basic economic systems, and so forth. The blue helmets, who are
the emblems of peacekeeping in practice, provide a foundation of security
for their civilian colleagues who assist national authorities to restart basic
systems of government and rebuild legitimate state institutions which canpreserve the peace.

Peacekeeping has its risks and outcomes can never be certain but the money
contributed to peacekeeping by member states is very much a soundinvestment.

Recent independent reviews of the UN peacekeeping system,

including by the US RAND Corporation and others have foundpeacekeeping under the UN Charter to be the most effective, and most costeffective, way of managing the most common forms of armed conflict in theworld today.
3However, it is also important to understand that UN Peacekeeping is not theright tool for every job. There will always be a need for a variety ofinternational approaches – economic assistance; regional integration;
mediation; sanctions; military deterrence, and others.

III.

REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE – THE ROLE OF ASIA AND JAPANAsia is a region that benefits enormously from a peaceful and open world
trading system. The resources you need, and the markets you need, both
require a degree of basic stability in the international system. This region, inother words, does not just thrive by itself; it thrives in stability, as a
successful part of an inter-dependent global order. And it has an enormousinterest in maintaining the integrity of that global system.

At the wider level, Asia is now a global actor, and its responsibilities areglobal, even if its immediate interests are not directly engaged. If there is aneed – a human need, to save lives and help bring stability – then this region
now has responsibilities that go far beyond its borders. The world expects
you to play that leading role and it is heartening to see that Japan has been
embracing this role. Some have said that this is the “Hour of Asia”. Fromthe perspective of UN peacekeeping, it’s hard to argue with this. But wewould say, perhaps, that it is the hour of Asia as a global player.

The region, and in particular Japan, already makes important contributions
to international security systems. And if current trends are any guide, Asia
will be the future for UN peacekeeping force generation. Given that Asia
does not have an over-arching regional organisational structure, for most4

Asian states, engagement in peacekeeping operations will therefore most
likely be through the UN framework.

South Asian countries are among the top troop contributors and Asianpeacekeeping operation capacities are growing and diversifying - Indonesia
is now participating, Mongolia is a new contributor, Thailand and thePhilippines provide large numbers of police, and China is continuing toincrease its participation.

Encouragingly, Asia is not only becoming more interested and involved inpeacekeeping, but it is also building upon this through various inter-state andinternational forums. For example, China held an ASEAN plus 1 meetingon UN peacekeeping last October, the Republic of Korea is holding apeacekeeping conference in June, and here we are today in a forum in Japan
devoted to peacekeeping. In addition, Asian expert training capacities aregrowing, as demonstrated by the Malaysian regional peacekeeping
operations training centre and the Chinese police peacekeeping centre.

Asia’s involvement in United Nations peacekeeping operations, and its
desire to expand that involvement, also places a responsibility upon theUnited Nations. We need to better understand Asia’s perspectives on
multilateral security mechanisms. We need to know more about how Asian
countries can best engage with the UN, what strengths and capacities thesestates can bring to peacekeeping, and we need to engage with countries, likeJapan, directly to better understand your priorities and those of the region.

5Japan’s engagement in peacekeeping is already substantial. Japan is not
only a financer of peacekeeping (contributing 16.5% of peacekeeping’s
budget, among the first countries to have disbursed contributions to theMINURCAT Trust Fund, and providing personnel for eight UN
peacekeeping operations), but it is also engaged as a bilateral donor
alongside UN peacekeeping operations. In MONUC, Japan has supported
stabilization efforts for eastern DRC to help implement the measures agreed
at the Conference on Peace, Security and Development in the Kivus
provinces. Japan is also one of the leading donors to Timor-Leste having
provided more than US$240 million in development assistance since 1999.
This aid has been critical to furthering a wide range of development andgovernance programmes.

In Sudan, Japan has been working to provide political support to theimplementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement - the basis forsustainable peace in Sudan – and Japan has recently expressed interest incontributing military personnel and assets to UNMIS. In Sierra Leone,
Japan’s support has taken shape by providing support to the energy sector
and the local elections scheduled for July 2008. Japan has also madesignificant contributions to Afghanistan’s stabilization: hosting the 2002
Tokyo conference on Afghan reconstruction, leading the disarmament
demobilization and reintegration process and, since 2001, contributing over
USD 1.2 billion to the consolidation of peace in Afghanistan, targetinggovernance, the disbandment of illegal armed groups, and infrastructuredevelopment 1 .
1

Japan is a member of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB), the body that oversees theimplementation of the Afghanistan Compact, and one of the six largest development contributors to6Recently, Japan has also been extending its support to building African
peacekeeping capacity by providing assistance to the Kofi AnnanInternational Peacekeeping Training Centre 2 and by sending specialists toAfrica, Egypt and Ghana to train the trainers. All these contributions are an
expression of Japan’s commitment to global peace and security.

Just as Japan is a significant contributor to peacekeeping, its commitment topeacebuilding is equally impressive – a commitment that has been expressedat the highest levels in Japan. In January, Prime Minister Fukuda presented
an initiative to advance Japan’s role as a “Peace Fostering Nation” in theannual policy speech at the Diet, and earlier this year the Minister for
Foreign Affairs, Mr. Koumura, delivered a policy speech entitled: “Japan: A
Builder of Peace” where he stated that Japan “must demonstrate leadershipin building peace in the world.” Japan’s commitment is reflected in actions
as well as words. Japan is the Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission andhas made significant financial contributions through the UN Trust Fund for
Human Security, UN Democracy Fund and the Peacebuilding Fund. Japanhas established a programme for Human Resource Development in Asia forPeacebuilding (the Hiroshima Peacebuilders Center) and in March this year
the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in conjunction with the United
Nations University organised the Tokyo Peacebuilders Symposium.

Japan has also just co-hosted TICAD 4 focusing on African Development
and has committed to double in five years its overseas development aid toAfghanistan. On 6 February 2008, Japan hosted the VIIth JCMB meeting in Tokyo, which focused on
counter-narcotics. Japan’s interest in Afghanistan diminished somewhat following a major domesticpolitical controversy caused by the deployment of Japanese troops to southern Iraq.
2Japan provided this assistance in cooperation with UNDP to enhance capabilities of 400 personnel.

7Africa. Japan has striven to enhance awareness of the importance of peace
consolidation through the TICAD process – offering bilateral andmultilateral assistance in collection of small arms, DDR and landmines, andreintegration through community development based on the principle ofhuman security which focuses attention on empowering the people wherestate authority is not in place. One such example of this is Japan’s support
for SSR, DDR and mine action. Since 1995 Japan has consistently provided
funding for mine action projects carried with total contributions of more than
US$58 million.
Clearly Japan is contributing a great deal, however, one area we would hope
to see increased engagement would be in the deployment of Japanesenationals in peacekeeping operations. Conscientious efforts by the Japanese
government, including the Hiroshima Peacebuilders Center, to support
aspiring young candidates for peacekeeping and peacebuilding is anotherexample of Japan’s desire to increase its commitment. In addition toassisting the Hiroshima Peacebuilders Center through the PermanentMission of Japan to the United Nations in New York, the Department ofField Support is working with such NGOs as the Japan Center forInternational Cooperation (JANIC), Association for Aid and Relief (AAR)
and the Africa-Japan Forum to encourage Japanese nationals to apply for
positions in UN peace operations.

8IV.

PEACEKEEPING IS PART OF PEACEBUILDING

One of the challenging and rewarding aspects of peacekeeping is that overtime our understanding of the definition of peace has shifted. Early UN
peacekeeping operations were considered a success if they assisted theparties in stabilising a situation. Later operations were judged successful asevidenced by the withdrawal of a peacekeeping operation. However, today
peacekeeping is no longer viewed as a self-contained operation, but rather isseen as the first phase of political, economic and military investments inpost-conflict states. It is this much broader conceptualisation of the peace
process that offers the greatest promise for building lasting peace in any
fragile country.

A significant evolution in peacekeeping over the past decade has been in ourunderstanding of how peacebuilding begins at the outset of international
engagement during the peacekeeping mandate. Today, UN peacekeeping
doctrine and practice starts from the premise that we are only one part of awider response to the challenge of building peace after conflict.
Accordingly, we need to focus on the challenge of making the linkages
between peacekeeping, and longer-term peacebuilding, stronger and thetransition seamless. Part of addressing this challenge is overcoming themisleading perception that post conflict financial support is an "additionalcost". In reality, investing in both peacekeeping and in building thecapacities of the state, is an investment in the long-term democratic stability.

Both peacekeeping and peacebuilding are sound investments but whenviewed as one greater process rather than two distinct activities they have9the potential to exponentially expand their impact. For a country like Japan
who contributes heavily to peacekeeping as well as aid programmes thisnuanced understanding of the process for creating durable peace is very
important. Japan’s contributions to peacekeeping and Japan's aid
programmes can be extremely valuable tools when coordinated within thecontext of an overall international peacebuilding strategy.

Peacekeepers are critical early peacebuilding actors, laying the foundation
for a longer and more comprehensive effort. This is particularly the case insome key areas, such as support to political processes, provision of security
and the rule of law, and the extension of state authority. These core
peacekeeping functions are critical for peacebuilding – if we don’t get thepolitical process underway, and security in place, then the space for longerterm development and capacity-building is hugely constrained. In otherareas, we serve as enablers for the peacebuilding efforts of others,
particularly development actors: in building capacity, promoting economic
recovery and employment, facilitating local dialogue and confidencebuilding.

This is not always straightforward. There are sometimes inevitable tensions
between short-term political and security exigencies and longer term
sustainable development objectives and this is why the establishment of acoordinated strategic approach, in the early phase of a post-conflict context,
is critical.

A critical peacebuilding role of peacekeeping operations, particularly ofsenior mission leadership, is in reaching out and bringing different actors
10into the broad peacebuilding effort. Successful peacekeeping operations
have encouraged and facilitated the engagement of national, regional, UN
and other international partners in providing security, logistic and technicalassistance but equally, in promoting dialogue and, where appropriate,
coordinating the activities of diverse actors. In recognizing the roles,
peacekeeping doctrine and planning concepts over the past 10 years have put
new emphasis on an integrated approach and on working with partners. Thisis the fundamentally changing the way in which we understand and carry out
our peacekeeping tasks. We still have some way to go however and it is inthese areas that I see the new frontiers of peacekeeping.

The UN peacebuilding architecture can play a valuable role. The PBC,
which Japan chairs, offers an umbrella to engage all peacebuilding actors,
including IFIs and private actors, in an inclusive process. And, as Burundiand Sierra Leone have demonstrated, the UN peacebuilding architecture
engages in active partnership with national authorities, providing a platform
for incorporating and supporting Host State interaction with international
partners throughout the transition to sustainable development.

V.

CONCLUSION

Let me conclude by saying that Asia, and in particular Japan, have alreadybegun to shoulder their global responsibilities in promoting peace andsecurity issues. The attention to developing the next generation ofpeacekeepers, through initiatives such as the establishment of peacekeeping
training facilities is a particularly encouraging development in this regard.

11This is vital. Asia wants to be a good citizen of a peaceful world, and tohelp manage the great changes that are coming – not just because a peacefulworld is good for Asia, though this is a part of it.

And the United Nations is ready to serve as a central framework for helping
you to be that “good citizen”, working side by side with other nations, fromother continents, for the common good.

We honour the work that you have done; we thank you for the commitments
and preparations that you have made for the future, and we look forward togrowing cooperation in the years to come.

12