Working together in peacekeeping: cooperation between central European countries.

• Author: Turk, Danilo

Genuine commitments require practical implementation. Maintenance of international peace and security remains a paramount purpose of the United Nations. Therefore, the contribution to the United Nations activities in this area, notably peacekeeping, is one of the most important duties of its Member States. Slovenia has been aware of this ever since the proclamation of its independence on 25 June 1991 and its admission to the United Nations less than a year later.

In examining the possibilities for its contribution to United Nations peacekeeping, Slovenia was confronted with a constraint typical for a country of its size: relatively limited human and financial resources. These resources were already stretched due to numerous obligations of Slovenia in the field of international military cooperation, like the participation in the Partnership for Peace or the trilateral Slovenian-Hungarian-Italian brigade. Consequently, we turned to our neighbourhood, Central Europe, where the duster of medium-sized and smaller countries would likely have similar constraints.

The first cooperation was developed with neighbouring Austria, a country with rich experience in training for and participating in UN peacekeeping. Other Central European countries, like Hungary, already had fruitful cooperation with Austria. In September 1997, the Slovenian contingent often troops was deployed with the United Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). This contingent, the first ever from Slovenia, now serves as part of the Austrian-Hungarian-Slovenian battalion. Such traits are not only a useful way for smaller Member States to contribute effectively to the UN peacekeeping, but are a United Nations in miniature, since they comprise troops from various nations.

With due care, the issues of language diversity and differences in military doctrines and traditions can become an important asset, not hindrance, for such units and operations in which they take part.

Experience with this initial deployment has been very positive, and there are consultations presently under way with a view to increasing substantially the Slovenian contingent in UNFICYP. Beginning in August 1998, another case of Central European cooperation is going on in the United Nations Trace Supervision Organization (UNTSO), where two military observers each from Slovakia and Slovenia will assume duties formerly performed by four Austrian military observers. This will provide us with the opportunity to broaden the...