AfP Q&A: USIP chief of staff—Peacebuilding Central to National Security

AfP Q&A: USIP chief of staff—Peacebuilding Central to National Security

March 21, 2011

There is much discussion in the halls of Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department these days about the role of peacebuilding in national security. Paul Hughes, Chief of Staff at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), shared thoughts on the issue in a recent interview with the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP), focusing especially on the theme that "Preventing conflict is central to 21st century national security.”

USIP’s chief of staff, Col. Paul Hughes (U.S. Army, ret.), sat down this month with AfP to discuss peacebuilding’s role in the national security framework. Hughes is responsible for keeping peace operations, training and analysis on task for the small agency. In previous assignments, Hughes led the stand-up of peace and stability operations for USIP in Iraq as director of Iraq programs. He was the executive director of the Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel and for the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. Additionally, he also served as a staff director for the Iraq Study Group.

Prior to joining USIP, Hughes served nearly 30 years on active duty with the Army. Among his assignments, he was a senior staff officer for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance and later with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. From 2000 to 2002, he was director of national security policy on the Army staff. From 1996 to 2000, he led U.S. landmine policy, the DOD response to Hurricane Mitch, the Turkish earthquakes, and the Mozambique floods for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) as deputy director of the Office for Humanitarian Assistance and Anti-Personnel Landmine Policy. He has been awarded numerous campaign and service medals, including three Bronze Stars.

Hughes emphasized in his remarks that, in many ways, USIP is leading the new national security support model: USIP is small, nimble and generates high impact for low cost, with just a $39 million budget. With a staff of about 300 professional international conflict mediators, trainers and analysts, its operating model is simple: three centers for conflict management, innovation and training.

How Should We Think about Peacebuilding in a National Security Framework?

In response to our questions about how to think about peacebuilding in a national security framework, Hughes elaborated on how Congress structured USIP to work alongside the Departments of Defense and State. To ensure cooperation and coordination on national security matters, the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF), the Secretary of State (SECSTATE), and the active duty military general or flag officer serving as the National Defense University president are members of the USIP Board of Directors. "The Defense and State departments and USIP work together on planning and executing international conflict management and peacebuilding dimensions of national security strategy and policy,” Hughes said. USIP mediates conflicts, delivers joint, interagency and whole-of-community training in peacebuilding tradecraft, and conducts conflict research and analysis. The training is provided at its headquarters, Joint Professional Military Education and foreign affairs schools, military bases, colleges and universities, and in conflict zones around the world. The past three Administrations have called on USIP to support the nation’s peace and security goals with innovative post-conflict reconciliation and stabilization operations, most notably in the Balkans, the Philippines, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, South Sudan, and Libya.

What is USIP’s Role in Preventing Conflict?

Conflict prevention has become a topic of intense interest across the government and military over the past year. In response to our question about USIP’s role in preventing conflict, Hughes responded that, "Preventing conflict in the first place saves lives, reduces the government’s costs and enhances national security." He added, "USIP’s operations in Libya are the most recent example demonstrating the capabilities that make the Institute so effective.” Hughes related that ADM James Stavridis, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, visited USIP to thank the Institute for deploying its peacebuilders shortly after the NATO decision to intervene to protect Libyan civilians. Working behind the scenes, USIP served as one of the bridges between the rebels and both the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). "The day Tripoli fell, the Institute was on the ground training over a hundred Libyans to work as post-conflict mediators and facilitators. They were able to rapidly respond throughout the country to prevent community-level violence. USIP remains there now, helping address post-conflict challenges. USIP is the only foreign actor with a seat on Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council’s stabilization team.” The Institute is actively supporting several situations with Track 1.5 dialogue, including countries involved in the Arab Spring and U.S.-China-North Korea.

What is USIP’s Role in Training for Conflict Management Skills?

Since 9/11, USIP’s role has grown in advancing U.S. international interests through working with military, the State Department, other civilian agencies, nongovernmental and international organizations, and institutions of higher education and research. "To be effective in modern conflict,” Hughes said, "military and civilian personnel need to design and implement operations across institutional and national boundaries and work together in rapidly changing, insecure environments. USIP’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding targets professionalizing the peacebuilding community. This means practical training in peacebuilding skills, the development of expert leaders, and building quality partnerships.” The Academy gives the government the ability to prepare interagency and whole-of-community participation for today's conflicts and tomorrow's conflict management challenges.

What Role Does USIP Play in Innovation for Peace?

Hughes said that USIP’s status as a quasi-independent agency with both the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State on its board of directors "enables agility, flexibility, and the ability to be innovative.” Inspired by Congress’s vision of a service that could independently collate, analyze and apply data and information relevant to conflict management and peacebuilding from open sources and all departments of the federal government, "USIP’s applied research capacity provides the government a formidable resource.” Staffed with professionals from many disciplines—economists, political scientists, anthropologists, lawyers, national security specialists, peace operations experts, historians, military, diplomats—USIP’s roster includes a Who’s Who of innovators in international conflict management and peacebuilding.

Hughes said "USIP is a hub for increasing collaboration in whole-of-community peacebuilding.” He cited the role of USIP interagency professionals in residence (IPRs)—selected military officers and civilians drawn from across the government—working together at USIP to support and improve peacebuilding in joint, interagency, non-governmental, and multinational environments. Two of USIP’s Army fellows went on to earn their general’s stars and apply their skills in conflict management for the nation through service in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Incoming IPRs include staff representatives and liaisons from DOD, State, AID, the Department of Agriculture, the Marine Corps, Air Force, Army, and Navy.

"One of USIP’s most important national security contributions has been its joint collaboration with the Army on the first strategic ‘doctrine’ ever produced for civilian actors involved in peace operations,” Hughes said. Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction captures the hard-won lessons of whole-of-government interventions in a practical guidebook for adaptive, creative conflict leadership at a critical time in our history. Through this analysis, the Institute supported the planning framework for Libya’s post-conflict stabilization preparations. The Institute facilitates the Working Group on Civil-Military Relations in Non-Permissive Environments, the nation’s only regular working group of the major U.S. humanitarian assistance NGOs, the Defense and State departments, and USAID. This group negotiated and oversees guidelines approved by SECDEF and CJCS to coordinate the relations and combined efforts of the military, civilian agencies and humanitarian NGOs in peace and stability operations.

What Effects Would Reductions in Funding Have on USIP?

USIP provides cost savings to the US government through its prevention programs. Preventing and ending conflict clearly saves lives, reduces the government’s costs, and enhances national security, Hughes said. As evidence, the reconciliation USIP mediated in Mahmoudiya, Iraq, served as the model for the strategy that dramatically reduced American military and Iraqi civilian casualties. GEN David Petraeus, currently Director of Central Intelligence and CENTCOM’s commander at the time, called the mediation a "striking success.” According to Stephen Krasner, the State Department’s director of policy planning at the time and currently Stanford University professor of international relations: "USIP's successfulinterventionbecame the cornerstone of peace in the infamous ‘Triangle of Death.’ The value of the lives saved, American and Iraqi, cannot be calculated.” This one operation saved taxpayers over $2 billion, or three times all of the funding USIP received during its history and sufficient to fund USIP operations for 60 years.

Hughes said that USIP is doing its part to control federal spending, working closely with the Administration and Congress in "prioritizing and positioning peacebuilding for tomorrow.” USIP has already been cut significantly—20 percent in the past year. The Institute achieved $10 million in savings, through prioritization, efficiency and productivity gains, and a 16 percent reduction in the workforce since 2010—"at a time when civilian agencies are being tasked to do more in zones of conflict.” These cuts "reflect economic reality” and reduce the USIP budget baseline by $169 million through FY 2021, Hughes said. The cost to America is declining preparedness and capabilities to respond to crises, decreasing American influence in conflict outcomes around the globe, and diminished capacity critical to international operations where federal leadership cannot be replaced and is most needed. "We make every penny count that we receive.”

Hughes advises "against hasty action that would weaken our international peace and security capacities during this time of global turmoil. Understanding that preventing conflict in the first place saves lives and money is the first step.” Funding USIP pays national security dividends that far exceed the costs. In stark monetary terms, USIP's budget is equivalent to less than four hours of the cost of the war in Afghanistan. The military cost of Afghanistan for a month, about $7 billion, would fund USIP for 172 years. USIP’s role in Libya, at $100,000, contrasts with the first ten minutes of military action in establishing a no-fly zone that carried a $100 million price tag. The nation’s Founding Fathers would be proud that this part of their "proper Peace establishment" is providing national security benefits at a most modest expenditure, Hughes said.

AfP thanks Paul Hughes for his insights into USIP, and for the federal voice and support USIP ensures for all of us in the peacebuilding community!