ISSUE 191 : Jul/Aug - 2013 - Australian Defence Force Journal

The post-conflict space in which ‘peace operations’ occur has undoubtedly come out of a
conflict involving military and civilian parts of the community, and it will take military and
civilian efforts to rebuild it. The consequent multi-dimensional problems require an integrated
methodology. However, integrating groups within a single supporting nation is hard enough
without also addressing the challenges of international integration.
The ADF typically participates in regional engagement through ‘force-to-force’ activities.
Training exercises and disaster relief efforts practise the interoperability of forces and identify
gaps. But much engagement in the region happens through business, government and
academic exchanges. Despite this, the first time that representatives from the government,
the engineering firm, the university, the army and the non-governmental organisation meet is
invariably in the field or at a displaced persons’ camp under hazardous conditions.
Integrating the various elements of Australian assistance before a deployment, however, will
prove helpful to problem solvers on all sides. 23 These lessons have been validated through
ADF experience and need to be built on as the key capability that the ADF will provide at
the next regional engagement. When we build on our civil-military partnerships, we support
the strategic imperative of promoting regional stability through cooperation as opposed to
imposing order through power.
Regional cooperation
The Asia Pacific region presents many opportunities for regional states to confer on matters
of immediate concern. The archipelagic nature of states, the natural resources and the geoclimatic
idiosyncrasies call for a collective approach to security, and often a collective response
to disaster. In Australia’s experience, it has nearly always been expedient—and often more
successful—to lead with a regional response in the face of broader international mandates.
Bougainville is one such success. The response to the civil crisis in Bougainville in the 1990s
was led by the governments of New Zealand and Australia, and followed by civil-military
(unarmed) forces from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and Vanuatu. As Rolfe notes:
The presence of Maori and Pacific Island personnel in the teams was as important for the Truce
Monitoring Group as had been the use of Maori cultural practices in the New Zealand meetings.
Their presence helped to ensure that the Group was accepted and able to carry out its role. 24
Later, when the Peace Monitoring Group replaced the Truce Monitoring Group, its cultural
context was also noted:
The willingness and capability of the Peace Monitoring Group to accept local traditions and
behave with appropriate cultural sensitivity laid the grounds for its success…. Given the
significance of personal relationships in Melanesian cultural context, this relationship building
was of utmost importance. 25
Understanding regional cultural practices is something that, despite generational turn-over,
the ADF builds on quite well. There is a general recognition of ‘the Pacific way’, an approach
which involves ‘sitting and thinking about the process and getting that right, as much as it
does in trying to develop solutions’. 26 There is consideration given to the time needed to listen
as well as to speak. There is room for what has been described as ‘an ethic of attention’. 27
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