A Wall That Could Not Stand – National Review Online (blog)
National Review Online (blog)A Wall That Could Not StandNational Review Online (blog)The world changed 25 years ago today, on November 9, 1989. If you were in Europe or even in the United States, you probably remember when you heard the news that the Berlin Wall had fallen. As stories go, few can match the intrigue and drama of the …and more »
Garuda Canti Darma: 'Indonesia Serving for Peace' (dipnote)
Where would you go if you wanted to see the United States coordinating the training of more than 800 peacekeepers from 21 countries? You might think California or Texas, but you’d be wrong. For this particular training event, you’d have to travel all the way to Indonesia to take part in Garuda Canti Darma, or “_Indonesia serving for peace_.”
Since 2005, the United States has worked through the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) to meet the growing need for international peace operations by helping other countries train and sustain peacekeepers. U.S. Pacific Command works hand-in-hand with GPOI to support this effort by organizing annual capstone exercises in the Pacific theater. This year, Indonesia volunteered to showcase their peacekeeping training center and host the event, providing a platform to train critical peacekeeping skills and help participants build on their understanding of how to work in multinational operations. The training ranged from field training exercises to building competencies in key peacekeeping tasks to sharing ideas and best practices on how to conduct peacekeeping operations strategically.
Perhaps some of the most important training that happened, though, was training a new cadre of trainers. Several graduates of last year’s exercises returned to …