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KOSOVO: Peacekeeping at a Stretch
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NATO armies are struggling to balance expanding peacekeeping commitments.
JDW News Editor Ian Kemp reports
Norway is only one of many NATO countries struggling to meet its peacekeeping commitments. Earlier this month a company of the Norwegian Army's Telemark Battalion was withdrawn from Sarajevo where it had been serving as part of the in-theatre reserve for the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR). The two Telemark companies scheduled to replace the contingent will form the nucleus of a 1,200-strong battalion group that Oslo has pledged to NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR). Needing time to regroup and train, the Telemark Battalion will not be ready to deploy to Kosovo before mid-October.
The expected deployment of more than 50,000 peacekeepers with KFOR, for what is likely to be a long-running commitment, poses a serious challenge for NATO. Many alliance members are already experiencing significant overstretch in meeting other peacekeeping and national security commitments.
This explains largely why the build-up of KFOR forces has been so slow, with only 32,000 peacekeepers deployed after almost two months. With contingents ranging from Hungary's two staff officers to the UK's 9,600 personnel, all of NATO's members except Iceland are represented in KFOR. A further 17 non-NATO nations, some of which have troops serving with SFOR, have pledged to commit troops.
A KFOR spokesman told Jane's Defence Weekly that the force will not reach 40,000 troops in theatre until September, and that the outstanding balance will likely comprise troops assigned to the strategic reserve, some of whom will remain in their home countries on short notice to deploy. Some of these will be double-tasked.
The 750-strong battalion of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps which is on four days notice to deploy from the Netherlands as part of SFOR's strategic reserve has had its mission extended to include the same responsibilities for KFOR.
At the beginning of July the UN had about 14,000 peacekeepers deployed on 14 peacekeeping operations. The 19 NATO members provided some 30% of these troops. The UN is now preparing to deploy a peacekeeping force to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The intent is for member states of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to provide most of the peacekeepers for this operation. This is in line with French, UK and US efforts to improve the ability of African troops enabling them to conduct peacekeeping operations inside and outside Africa.
It is the SFOR operation in Bosnia rather than UN missions which has been the focus of most NATO and Partnership for Peace (PfP) nations in recent years. Although troop strength has been almost halved since 1995, most recently with reductions authorised in June 1998, there are still 32,000 military personnel serving with SFOR.
France, the UK and the USA each provide a headquarters to command troops in one of the three multinational divisional sectors into which SFOR operations are divided. These three nations, along with Germany and Italy, also provide headquarters to command the five sectors that KFOR has established in Kosovo.
Earlier this month the military committee of NATO's North Atlantic Council approved in principle the reduction of SFOR's military strength to 16,500. The decision, which still must be approved by NATO members, is dependent upon a new assessment of the security situation in Bosnia. NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen Wesley Clark on a recent visit to Bosnia clearly indicated that he believed the situation was sufficiently stable to allow force cuts.
Perhaps the best scenario that can be hoped for in Bosnia is a long-running deployment of a less heavily armed peacekeeping force in a manner comparable to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, according to senior UK officers.
Some sources suggested that in the future the UN could assume responsibility for the force.
The armies of several NATO countries including Italy, France, the Netherlands and Spain are in the midst of sweeping reorganisations, which have complicated their ability to meet the KFOR commitment. However, their transition from conscript forces to smaller, all-professional forces are intended to make similar future deployments easier.
The Italian Army has more than 8,000 personnel in the former Yugoslavia with about 5,400 troops serving with KFOR, 1,800 with SFOR and 1,600 still committed to the 'Allied Harbour' humanitarian relief operation in Albania. Personnel from the Carbinieri military police force supplement these troops. Italy also has personnel serving with a number of UN missions.
Conscripts, none of whom can be used for overseas operations, still number more than 104,000 of the army's 177,000 total personnel. In mid-June Italian Defence Minister Carlo Scognamiglio said that to cope with the demands of these operations the transition to an all-volunteer force should be accelerated and defence spending should be increased from 1.1% of GDP to 1.5%. However, military sources say it would pose a considerable recruiting challenge to attract sufficient volunteers in a shorter time period.
The reorganisation of the Royal Netherlands Army now under way will reduce its force from 80,000, of which most were conscripts, to 36,000 professional soldiers. The Netherlands has committed 2,050 personnel to KFOR, including 180 air force personnel. A further 1,700 personnel are serving with SFOR, with about 110 personnel on UN duty. Although the 11th Field Artillery Battalion, which forms the core of the KFOR contingent, has brought several of its M109 155mm howitzers to Kosovo, the bulk of the unit is being used for patrolling and other infantry tasks.
Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are each preparing to deploy a battalion group to Kosovo. These nations have a long history of actively participating in UN peacekeeping operations and, along with a Polish contingent, contribute the Nordic-Polish (NORDPOL) Brigade to SFOR. Their small standing forces in peacetime are intended primarily as the training base and cadre for the mobilisation of 'total defence' armies. Each of them depends upon volunteers, usually reservists, for peacekeeping operations thus limiting the numbers which can be deployed at any one time as well as the speed of their deployment.
The 4,500-strong Danish International Brigade, formed in 1994, is intended for both combat missions and to provide the bulk of Denmark's peacekeepers. The majority of the brigade consists of volunteers who agree to participate in two six-month international deployments during their three-year reserve commitment. This enables Denmark to commit up to 1,500 personnel. The December 1998 report of the defence commission, which formed the basis for the recently-agreed 2000-2004 defence plan, noted that to increase the number of personnel on international deployment to 2,000 would require an additional annual expenditure of DKr1 billion to 1.7 billion ($138 million-$236 million) as well "considerable" one-off expenses.
On 4 June Norwegian Defence Minister Eldbjorg Lower announced plans to double Norway's commitment to NATO's Immediate Reaction Force (IRF). This includes expanding the Telemark Battalion to a 2,100-strong group that will comprise an armoured squadron and artillery battery. Such a large deployment is possible only because NATO has agreed to end Oslo's commitment to replace its infantry battalion serving with the (NORDPOL) Brigade in Bosnia when its deployment ends in November.
The reorganisation will provide a stronger force for a mission of short duration, but maintaining such a force for an indefinite period would pose a major challenge. Chief of Defence Gen Sigurd Frisvold has been tasked to prepare a force model by mid-2000 to reflect the shift in missions away from national defence to international missions requiring force projection.
Sweden will deploy an 800-strong battalion to KFOR based on the army's 525-strong rapid-reaction unit reinforced with about 300 volunteers. Swedish Supreme Commander Gen Owe Wictorin recently told JDW that Sweden should be capable of deploying between 1,500 and 2,000 peacekeepers at any one time. "If we should maintain a battalion in Bosnia and at the same time deploy another battalion to Kosovo we are near the limit, although not above the ceiling." Those KFOR personnel who are not career soldiers have signed 12-month contracts; about 70% have served on international missions. However, the battalion will not be ready to deploy until September.
As with the deployment of SFOR in Bosnia, NATO planners are hoping that a stable security situation in Kosovo will allow KFOR to be reduced as soon as possible if for no other reason than to free troops for other peace support operations in the future.
Additional reporting by JDW Correspondents: Paolo Valpolini, John Berg, Hans G Andersson and MartijnDelaere
Jane's
Defence Weekly