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Summary

In its May 2009 budget request for FY2010, the Obama Administration has requested $96.8 million for the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI). GPOI was established in mid-2004 as a five-year program with intended annual funding to total $660 million from FY2005 through FY2009. (Actual funds allocated to the GPOI program from FY2005 through FY2009 totaled, as of April 2009, some $480.4 million.) The centerpiece of the Bush Administrations efforts to prepare foreign security forces to participate in international peacekeeping operations, GPOIs primary purpose has been to train and equip 75,000 military troops, a majority of them African, for peacekeeping operations by 2010. In October 2008, the National Security Councils Deputies Committee approved a five-year renewal of GPOIs mandate. Congressional approval of the FY2010 budget request would provide funding for the first year of this extension. To date, GPOI also provides support for the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU), an Italian train-the-trainer training center for gendarme (constabulary police) forces in Vicenza, Italy. In addition, GPOI promotes the development of an international transportation and logistics support system for peacekeepers, and encourages information exchanges to improve international coordination of peace operations training and exercises. Through GPOI, the United States supports and participates in a G* Africa Clearinghouse and a G8++ Global Clearinghouse, both to coordinate international peacekeeping capacity building efforts. GPOI incorporates previous capabilities-building programs for Africa. From FY1997 to FY2005, the United States spent just over $121 million on GPOIs predecessor program that was funded through the State Department Peacekeeping (PKO) account: the Clinton Administrations African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) and its successor, the Bush Administrations African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program. (ACOTA is now GPOIs principal training program in Africa.) Some 16,000 troops from ten African nations were trained under the early ACRI/ACOTA programs. Some $33 million was provided from FY1998 to FY2005 to support classroom training of 31 foreign militaries through the Foreign Military Financing accounts Enhanced International Peacekeeping Capabilities program (EIPC). Within a year after GPOI was initiated in late 2004, the Administration began expanding its geographical scope to selected countries in Central America, Europe, and Asia. In 2006 and 2007, the program was further expanded to countries in Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific. GPOI now includes 53 partner countries and two partner organizations throughout the world, although the emphasis is still on Africa. According to figures provided by the State Department, almost 57,600 peacekeeper trainees and peacekeeper trainers were trained as of January 31, 2009.. Congress has tended to view the concept of the GPOI program favorably, albeit sometimes with reservations. Over the years, the State Department has addressed various congressional concerns. In a June 2008 report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended several further improvements (GAO-08-754). In its first action on GPOI during the 111th Congress, the House passed legislation authorizing the Secretary of State to carry out and expand GPOI programs and activities (Section 1108 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011, H.R. 2410, passed June 10, 2009).

Related Legislation:
• H.R.2410
• S.53
• S.2010

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