The training partnership. Senior officials from the two countries recently signed a new agreement – the Peace and Stability Training Partnership – geared at facilitating the armies’ training in support of peace and stability operations through establishing civil security, civil control, the rule of law and protection of civilians.
- Brigade General Giovanni Pietro Barbano, Director of the Italian Centre of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU), and Colonel Jay Liddick, Director of the US Army’s Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI), represented their countries at signing the ceremony, which was held on January 29 at the Italian Embassy in Washington DC.
In Liddick’s words: “PKSOI has a long, proud history of working with allies and partners around the world to address peacekeeping and stabilisation challenges,” explained the unit’s director. “I’m honoured and humbled by the opportunity to be part of this day, where we recognise and celebrate the great teamwork between the Italian Carabinieri and PKSOI. There is much work to do, and we will continue to work hard together.”
- The partnership is also intended to develop doctrine and training that will expand the mutual knowledge base of both organisations.
Forces for stabilisation. The new partnership builds on a yearslong collaboration, started in 2014 to develop combined training and education activities. PKSOI and CoESPU are niche organisations with overlapping mandates, explained Colonel Liddick, tasked with enhancing combat capabilities “while also ensuring that forces are able to conduct transitional public security as operations transition from combat or conflict to local governance.”
- The organisations are internationally recognised for United Nations peace operations and share the same goal in preparing national and coalition forces to accomplish the stability activities associated with re-establishing local governance.
- Both focus on doctrinal development and multinational peacekeeping operations education and training, with CoESPU acting as a hub for advanced studies and training through the Carabinieri methodology – which has been shining through on the Serbia-Kosovo border – and PKSOI serving as the Lead Agent for Joint Proponency for Peace and Stability Operations under the US Army Combined Arms Center.
“Our enduring partnership with CoESPU enables the US to draw on Italy’s deep knowledge and robust experience in the area of stability policing, complementing and expanding the peacekeeping capacity-building assistance the US provides through our institutions and personnel,” said Jen Pullman, the US State Department’s Peace Operations Capacity Building Division Chief.
Image: US Army
