Romanian Military Thinking

Geopolitics • Geostrategy • International Security
Note by the Permanent Mission (R/IO), the personnel belonging to this group will deploy
from the home country to the Military Division of DPKO, in New York. Subsequently,
they will deploy to the mission area.
Group Two includes the remaining mission’s staff members and is activated within
fourteen days, after receiving the Verbal Note by the Permanent Mission. After activation,
this group will deploy from their home country directly to the mission area or a designated
staging area. Group Three constitutes a separate pool of individuals consisting of military
observers, staff officers and military experts on missions, already placed by member states
in UNSAS, at the United Nation disposal. These personnel will be activated according
to the agreed response times. The Groups One and Two are to be used only for establishing
new missions led by DPKO. Group Three will be used for replacements or staffing
ongoing missions led by DPKO or the Department of Political Affairs ~ DPA.
Member states and R/IO are asked to make sure that the personnel meant for the
military “On-Call List” are fluent in English and/or in another UN official language, have
at least two-year driving experience, are in good health and are available for deployment
within a certain time, and fulfil the criteria according to the job descriptions required
for each position.
Therefore, the UN rapid deployment capability includes an own component, UNSAS
and an interstate component, SHIRBRIG. The latter one, initiated, as mentioned earlier,
in 1996, reached Full Operational Capability in 2000. It includes 5 000 personnel who are
available to undertake autonomous operations within 15 days and are sustainable for two
months. The brigade owns a Headquarters and a Planning Element, both situated near
Copenhagen. It is established with the contribution of 14 European countries and Canada.
SHIRBRIG was used for initiating the United Nations Mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia
– UNMEE, in November 2000 and afterwards the United Nations Mission in Sudan
– UNMIS, in March 2005. At present, SHIRBRIG contributes to the establishment
of the African Stand-by Force – ASF which will be finalised in 2010. In addition,
the SHIRBRIG Headquarters and Planning Element (PLANELM) are preoccupied
with the brigade’s interoperability with the European Union Battlegroups.
At the same time, the UN rapid response in crisis situations is also based on the
regional organisations.
Thus, the establishment of the EU rapid response capability is directly connected
with the European Union purpose to carry out peace operations under the UN mandate.
In the theoretical substantiation of the rapid response problem included in the Headline
Goal – 2003 of European Security and Defence Policy, the UN Secretary-General
requested the European Union to support the stabilisation of the security conditions in
parts of the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which led to the launching
of operation Artemis, in June 2003.
The positive impact of operation Artemis is easy to be noticed in the Final Declaration
of the Franco-British Summit held in London on November 24, 2003. The Declaration,
which describes the ways to strengthen the European cooperation in security and defence,
emphasised the need to obtain the capability to deploy an autonomous operation within
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