"When crises emerge in today's world, the international community often turns to national military forces to support operations to restore peace and stability. These missions are very different from, and often more complex than, the activities our militaries are normally trained to perform."

These words, spoken during opening ceremonies of the Southeast Asia Peace Operations Symposium by Ambassador Richard E. Hecklinger, U.S. ambassador to Thailand, set the stage for the conference, which was held in Bangkok, Thailand, from July 10-14 last year.

Air Chief Marshall Chanchai Chanchidchingchai, deputy chief of joint staff, Royal Thai Armed Forces, officially opened the symposium. He welcomed the delegates to Thailand and expressed his view on the symposium's purpose.

"Today, complex conflicts caused by differences in economic, ethnic culture and religious beliefs, have erupted on almost every continent and are causing enormous loss of resources and property," Chanchai said. "Most terrible is the toll they take on humanity and societies. Stopping these complex conflicts and restoring peace and stability is extremely difficult and costly in terms of political effort, manpower and resources."

He added, "the objective of this non-political, multinational symposium is to provide a forum for senior implementing staff to exchange views on peacekeeping, to examine the issues that affect our nations and to enhance the readiness of participant forces to conduct these operations under a United Nation's mandate."

Hecklinger echoed Chanchai's views, explaining the importance of conducting peace operations.

"Peace operations can involve the separation of adversaries, disarming of combatants, and maintenance of cease-fires. But they can also facilitate the delivery of humanitarian relief, enable refugees and displaced persons to return home, and reconstruct war-torn communities," Hecklinger said. "By preventing small conflicts from growing into larger wars, peace operations save lives, economies, and cultures."

Representatives from seventeen countries attended the symposium, which was hosted by the Royal Thai Armed Forces and co-sponsored by the U.S. Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, and the United Nations.

Countries participating included Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and the United States. Observers attended from Bangladesh, Canada, Japan, Madagascar, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Tonga and the United Nations Department of Peace Keeping.

The theme of this interactive symposium, which is part of the Asia-Pacific Peace Operations Capacity Building Program, focused on building peace operations capabilities in Southeast Asia and served to enhance the readiness of the participating armed forces in conducting peace operations.

Peter Leentjes, training advisor with the Center of Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, explained, "the peace operations program is a series of seminars, exercises and games designed to enhance peace operations capabilities." Leentjes said that participants of the seminars would discuss concepts, ideas, training and challenges, while the exercises and games will develop participants' operational capacities.

It was also designed to increase interoperability between the armed forces, develop regional capability for timely and effective response to crises in the region and emphasize rules of engagement under international laws, treaties and conventions.

Perhaps the greatest opportunity of the conference was in bringing people together to talk about peace operations. Hecklinger said, "this symposium is a good opportunity for [the participants] to share experiences with each other about national approaches to peace operations, and to build the personal network that will be so valuable should you find yourselves one day working side by side on behalf of the United Nations, trying to bring peace to a troubled area."

Leentjes summed the week's event by saying, "we've done some super work at this symposium and raised some particularly difficult issues that need to be discussed between the countries ... engagement isn't accomplished in one day. We will continue to push forward with the gains made here and prepare for the next conference."

News and information about the Peace Operations Capacity Building Program can be found by visiting the Center of Excellence's web site at http://coe-dmha.org or the Asia Pacific Area Network at http://apan-info.net.