Security contractor group looks beyond Blackwater controversy

For the past several months, the International Peace Operations Association has been thrust under the shadow of its now former member, the private security contractor Blackwater USA.

When Blackwater guards shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians, the media turned to the 6-year-old association for the industry's perspective. And when the shootings sparked new legislation and changes to State Department regulations, the group issued statements and press releases.

But at the IPOA's annual conference this week, the focus was on the other missions of the association -- overseas peace operations, providing disaster relief and synchronizing logistics. Dozens of contractors from the group's 38 member companies, including many international firms, participated in the forum that ran Sunday through Wednesday at the Phoenix Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Speakers from the Defense and State departments, industry and nongovernmental organizations outlined the challenges associated with operating in a hostile environment and coordinating the delivery of supplies through a complex amalgam of actors and regulations.

Many, including former Ambassador to Turkey W. Robert Pearson, the former director general of the Foreign Service, stressed that in the coming years, development assistance, rather than armed security, will be the fastest growing sector of the peace and stability industry.

"If we're lucky," Pearson said, "Iraq and Afghanistan will be the rarest of means."

He suggested that there should be a civilian lead in practically every international crisis, an opinion seconded by the head of the Army's Irregular Warfare Division.

Lt. Col. James Boozell, who founded the Army's Stability, Security, Transition and Reconstruction branch, said that roughly two years ago, the service had a "watershed moment," adding stability operations to its core missions that in the past had been limited strictly to offense and defense.

The numbers, Boozell said, illustrate why the change was made. Stability operations are six times more costly in terms of lives lost than combat operations and five times more costly in terms of dollars.

But efforts to re-establish civil control in locations like Iraq are best led by the State Department, with the Army playing a key support role, Boozell said. "We are working for the State Department," he said. "We are comfortable with that. And that's the way it should be."

Still, coordination between the Pentagon and its civilian resources -- whether they are in the State Department, nongovernmental organizations or contractors -- remains a challenge. Many speakers cited the need for the Bush administration to prioritize its languishing Civilian Reserve Corps while others stressed the role of Provincial Reconstruction Teams that could include officials from the Defense and State departments, and contractors.

Stewart Patrick, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development, said interagency cooperation often is snuffed out by stovepiped information and fundamental disagreements about "unity of effort." For example, countless departments are focused on the number of schools and courthouses built in war-torn countries like Iraq, but little to no "honest impact evaluation" is conducted on these new resources, Patrick said.

Roy Johnson, the director of integrated information and communication technology support in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration, said poor information sharing is an additional challenge.

The Army, Johnson said, has a stodgy and outdated attitude toward denying outsiders -- including civilian partners -- access to its networks. After combat operations have concluded, all parties must be able to coordinate virtually if the problems of the past five years are not to be repeated, he said.

"If we don't work on these issues, it will never get any better," Johnson said. "And it will be Iraq and Afghanistan all over again."

During a disaster, whether natural or manmade, the key for all sides is to maintain "controlled chaos" through planning and coordination, said Lt. Gen. Charles Mahan Jr., the Army's former logistics chief of staff and now the vice president and general manager for law enforcement and security with DynCorp International.

Resources must pooled, authority delegated and funds allocated, all within a short period of time, for a mission to succeed. Such cooperation cannot be accomplished through petty bickering and interagency fighting "because every moment you wait, lives can be lost," he said.