Leavenworth Strategist

2nd Troop Accord Passes In Iraq

By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, December 24, 2008; A07

BAGHDAD, Dec. 23 -- Iraq's parliament on Tuesday night signed off on a security agreement that would allow thousands of British troops and a few hundred soldiers from a handful of other countries to stay in Iraq until next summer.

The approval, which was delayed by recent fights in parliament, paves the way for the Iraqi government to sign a security agreement with Britain that covers small contingents from Australia, Estonia and Romania.

Those troops will be authorized to stay in Iraq until July, and their departure will mark the end of the "coalition of the willing."

China begins anti-piracy mission

(BBC) Three Chinese naval ships have set sail for waters off Somalia to protect Chinese vessels from pirate attacks.

Two destroyers and a supply ship left the port of Sanya on Hainan island to join warships from other nations already patrolling the area.

It will be the Chinese navy's first operation beyond the Pacific.

There have been more than 100 pirate attacks this year off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest sea lanes.

UN Security Council renews MONUC mandate

(Deutsche Welle) The United Nations Security Council has renewed the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The French-drafted resolution extends the MONUC mission for a period of one year, and authorises it to act independently against rebel armed groups threatening civilians or humanitarian and UN personnel. Recent fighting between government troops and rebel forces led by renegade General Laurent Nkunda has displaced more than a quarter of a million people in North Kivu province in the east of the DRC. Around 6,000 MONUC's 22,000 troops are deployed in North Kivu. The UN mission has been widely criticised for its inability to stop the latest fighting, which broke out last August.   

United Nations doubles Afghan aid budget

KABUL (AFP) — The United Nations said Wednesday it will double the budget of its Afghan mission next year, taking on hundreds of new staff and opening more offices to meet more "complex" challenges.

For 2009 its budget will be 150-160 million dollars, up from 81 million dollars in 2008.

"(The 2009 budget) will be, in fact, double our current budget, and allow us to raise the number of our personnel from 1,500 to 2,000," said Kai Eide, the UN secretary general's special representative for Afghanistan...

US May Double Troop Presence in Afghanistan

(VOA) By Kent Klein, Washington, 20 December 2008

The top U.S. military officer says the United States may double the number of troops it has in Afghanistan next year.  The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, says as many as 30,000 more troops could arrive by mid-2009. 

Admiral Mullen told reporters in Kabul the additional troops may reach Afghanistan in spring or summer, to join the 31,000 U.S. troops already there. "Some 20- to 30,000 is the window of overall increase from where we are right now," he said...

Iraq MPs block non-US troop bill

(BBC) Iraq's parliament has rejected a draft law that would have permitted forces from the UK, Australia and a number of other countries to remain after 2008.

The bill, rejected by 80 votes to 68, would have given the 6,000 non-US troops a legal basis for staying once the UN mandate expires on 31 December...

UN says Darfur conflict shows no sign of ending

By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — As the conflict in Darfur enters its sixth year, there is still widespread violence in the region, no sign of a political settlement and millions of civilians living in camps on lifesaving international aid, the U.N.'s peacekeeping chief said Friday.

Alain Le Roy told the U.N. Security Council that the joint African Union-United Nations force that took over peacekeeping in Darfur almost a year ago "has been much too slow in providing real improvements for the ordinary citizens on the ground and inadequate in resolving the Darfur crisis."

He said the U.N. must accelerate deployment of the 26,000-strong force, but stressed that "the fundamental responsibility for making real progress" lies with the government of Sudan and rebel groups which must stop fighting and start talking under U.N. mediator Djibrill Bassole...

NATO, Russia Meet for First Time After Georgia Invasion

(VOA News) By Lisa Bryant, Paris,19 December 2008

NATO and Russia held their first high-level talks Friday since Moscow invaded Georgia in August, sparking international criticism.

The lunchtime talks took place between NATO's secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Russia's ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin. NATO suspended its special relationship with Moscow - a framework known as the NATO-Russia Council - after the Georgian conflict four months ago. But earlier this month, NATO foreign ministers agreed to slowly resume dialogue with Russia...

China to Aid in Fighting Somali Pirates

By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, December 18, 2008; A20

BEIJING, Dec. 18 -- As international forces rescued a hijacked Chinese ship from Somali pirates Wednesday, state news media reports said China planned to send a naval fleet to fight pirates in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters.

An unnamed military source told the state-run English-language China Daily that the operation would be "a significant peacekeeping mission," but a National Defense University professor of military strategy told The Washington Post it would be the first time China has taken part in a "battle task."

U.S. Will Push U.N. for Somalia Mission

By Colum Lynch, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, December 14, 2008; Page A26

UNITED NATIONS -- The Bush administration will mount a last-ditch push this week to muster international backing for a relatively small U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia, in an effort to help stem piracy and prevent the resurgence of Islamist militants in the lawless East African nation, according to State Department officials.

The initiative -- which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will raise at a high-level United Nations meeting on piracy here Tuesday -- comes as the U.S.-backed Ethiopian military is preparing to withdraw its forces from Somalia at the end of the month, raising concerns that Islamist militants may seize control of Mogadishu for the second time in less than three years...

Cyprus: Security Council extends mandate of UN peacekeeping mission

(UN News Centre) 12 December 2008 –

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Cyprus (UNFICYP) by six months, welcoming September’s historic launch of talks between the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities aimed at reunifying the Mediterranean island.

The Council voted unanimously to keep the mission, which has been in operation since 1964 after the eruption of intercommunal violence between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, in place through 15 June 2009.

EU divided on sending troops to Congo

BRUSSELS, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- European Union officials are divided over sending peacekeepers to the eastern Congo to help back U.N. peacekeepers.

The European Union's top foreign policy official, Javier Solana, will meet U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York Monday, The Sunday Times of London reported.

The peacekeepers are working to stop atrocities being committed in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At their meeting last week, European leaders declined to send a peacekeeping force and humanitarian aid to the former Belgian colony.

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht made a plea to his European colleagues to send an armed European Union force to North Kivu in eastern Congo. Only Sweden and Spain supported the initiative. Other nations said the 17,000-strong U.N. mission already on the ground was sufficient.

Ex-Soviet military pact urges NATO cooperation

MOSCOW (AP) - The worsening situation in Afghanistan warrants more cooperation between NATO and a Russian-led military organization, the head of the Collective Security Treaty Organization said Friday.
The CSTO links Russia with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, serving as a tool for Moscow to preserve clout in its former Soviet backyard.
«The situation in Afghanistan is quite complex, and there is a trend toward its deterioration,» its head, Nikolai Bordyuzha, said at a briefing.
Russia in April agreed to allow NATO to transport non-lethal supplies overland to its forces in Afghanistan, and Russian officials said the deal still stands despite freezing of Russia-NATO ties over the Russian-Georgian war.
Bordyuzha said that transit of cargo for NATO troops could be one of the areas of cooperation between the alliance and the CSTO...

AU Pleads for UN Intervention for Somalia

(VOA) By Peter Heinlein, Addis Ababa, 10 December 2008

Africa's top peace and security official is to begin urgent talks on Thursday at the United Nations in an attempt to save Somalia's fragile U.N.-backed administration from collapse. The pending withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia is focusing the attention of the international community and Somalia's fractious political leadership on avoiding a descent into chaos.

African Union Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra is on a mission to try to persuade the U.N. Security Council to urgently dispatch a peacekeeping mission to Somalia.

The world body withdrew a previous mission in 1995, and Security Council ambassadors have since declined several requests to return the peacekeepers, saying there is no peace to keep in the lawless Horn of Africa nation...

Foreign Ministers review progress (Mediterranean Dialogue)

(NATO) NATO Foreign Ministers met with their Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) partners during a ministerial working lunch on 2 December. This was the third meeting of the NATO Foreign Ministers in the framework of the MD, following those which took place in December 2004 and 2007 in Brussels.

Ministers agreed that political and practical dimensions of the Mediterranean Dialogue should proceed in parallel.

Since the Istanbul Summit, the enhanced political dimension has gained both in regularity and substance: in addition to the Foreign Ministers meetings, there have also been two meetings of MD Defense Ministers in Taormina in February 2006 and in Seville in February 2007.

During their 2 December meetings, Ministers discussed the security situation in the region, with Ministers Tzipi Livni and Abou Gheit offering their insights into the follow up to the Annapolis process, as also did a number of NATO Foreign Ministers including Secretary of State Rice who attended her last MD Ministerial meeting...

NATO Looking For Alternative Routes To Support Afghan Operations

(RFE/RL) NATO says it is interested in finding alternative routes to supply its troops stationed in Afghanistan.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service that talks with Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and the majority of Central Asian countries about possible railway routes to Afghanistan are under way.

Appathurai said the issue cannot be solved quickly. But he add that there are only technical, not political issues, to be resolved.

The project, called "Lines of Communications," has been under discussion for almost two years.

New U.N. Congo troops may take half year to deploy: Ban

By Louis Charbonneau
Reuters
Friday, December 5, 2008; 8:47 PM

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - It may take up to half a year for the United Nations to deploy 3,000 new peacekeepers in eastern Congo, which is why it would help to have a bridging force from the European Union, the U.N. chief said on Friday.

"Practically speaking, it would take a long time -- the best scenario would be at least four months for United Nations additional peacekeeping forces who could be deployed," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters.

"It would take four to six months," he added.

Multinational conference focuses on joint solutions

By Sara Moore
American Forces Press Service

(OSLO - Nov. 19, 2008) -- Representatives of the United States and its allies are meeting in Oslo, Norway, this week in an effort to develop joint solutions to common defense challenges.

About 230 participants from 33 countries are meeting at the Concept Development and Experimentation Conference to focus on the problems facing their armed forces and to develop partnerships to solve those problems in the long term, officials said.

This year’s conference, which began Tuesday, deals with unconventional enemies and terror networks, strategic communications and military support for stabilization and reconstruction efforts, Navy Rear Adm. Dan Davenport, director of joint concept development and experimentation for U.S. Joint Forces Command, said in a teleconference from Norway.

Russia, Venezuela Launch Naval Exercises

By VOA News
01 December 2008

Russia and Venezuela have begun a series of joint naval operations in the southern Caribbean Sea aimed at evaluating their nations' skills in the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking.

Military officials for both countries said the exercises, dubbed "VenRus 2008," will include navigation, rescue and other operations.

A fleet of about 1,600 Russian naval officers is participating in the exercise aboard several Russian warships, which left the port of La Guaira, near Caracas, Monday for the exercises. The vessels arrived in Venezuela late last month in Russia's first deployment in the Caribbean since the Cold War.