Preparatory Meeting Held For GPOI Senior Mission Leadership Training
A preparatory meeting for the GPOI Senior Peace Mission Leadership training course was held at Hosei University on 16 October with the opening remark made by Hosei University Vice President Akiro Tomiyasu.Professor Sukehiro Hasegawa discussed substantive, managerial and procedural issues with the organizers from United States Global Peace Operation Initiative, Mr. Timothy Byrne and Mr. Stein Ellington of the Center for Civil-Military Relations of Naval Postgraduate School of the Untied States and Mr. Robin Sakota of Armitage International. Also participated in the meeting was Mr. Keiichik Shima, Deputy Director of the International Peace Cooperation Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

The Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) was launched by the United States in 2005 following the 2004 G-8 Sea Island Summit to train at least 75,000 peacekeepers to particiapte in peace operations. GPOI addresses major gaps in international peace operations support. The program aims to build and maintain capability, capacity, and effectiveness of peace operations.
The major objectives and activities of GPOI are: (1) train and, as appropriate, equip at least 75,000 peacekeepers worldwide, with an emphasis on Africa, to increase global capacity to participate in peace operations; (2) enhance the capacity of regional and sub-regional organizations to train for, plan, prepare for, manage, conduct, and obtain and sustain lessons-learned from peace operations by providing technical assistance, training, and material support; and, support institutions and activities which offer these capabilities to a regional audience; (3) create a “clearinghouse” function to exchange information and coordinate G8 efforts to enhance peace operations training and exercises in Africa; continue to provide support for such clearinghouse initiatives throughout the life of the G8’s Action Plan for expanding global capacity for peace support operations;(4) work with other G8 members to develop a globally oriented transportation and logistics support arrangement to help provide transportation for deploying peacekeepers and logistics support to sustain units in the field; (5) develop a cached equipment program to procure and warehouse equipment for use in peace operations anywhere around the globe; (6) provide support to the international Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (COESPU) in Italy to increase the capabilities and interoperability of stability police to participate in peace operations; and conduct sustainment/self-sufficiency activities in support of the objectives above with a focus on assisting partners to sustain proficiencies gained in training programs. All objectives support the building and maintenance capability, capacity, and effectiveness to plan and execute peace support operations. (Asami Idea)