Where Is the Lone Ranger When We Need Him?; America's Search for a Postconflict Stability Force

xvii, [1], 397, [5] pages. Includes Foreword by Richard H. Solomon; Acknowledgments; List of Acronyms; Lists of Illustrations and Tables; Introduction; Notes; and Index. Chapters include Brcko: SFOR vs. the "Rent-a-Mob"; Constabulary; CIVPOL: Police in Peacekeeping; Test Case: Creating Postconflict Security in Bosnia; Blue Box: The Multinational Specialized Unit in Bosnia; Odd Jobs: Constabulary Forces in Kosovo; Police keeping: U.S. Policy on Peace Operations; Nation Building: Biting the Bullet in Afghanistan and Iraq; Where Is the Lone Ranger When We Need Him? A penetrating study of U.S. policy on peace operations that examines the challenges of establishing sustainable security in post-conflict environments in places like the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Perito chronicles American conceptions and misconceptions regarding peacekeeping. Though the United States has played the primary role in organizing and leading stability operations, Perito's research and interviews with Washington policy-makers, European diplomats, and civilian police and soldiers raise serious questions about how well prepared the United States is for these nonmilitary tasks. Perito calls for the creation of a civilian U.S. Stability Force composed of constabulary, police, and judicial teams of lawyers, judges, and corrections officers. Such a force, he argues, could provide an effective postconflict partner for U.S. military forces. It could also ensure the likely success of political reconciliation and economic reconstruction by establishing the rule of law quickly and effectively. Robert M. Perito is a senior program officer in the Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations. He is also the coordinator of the Peacekeeping Lessons Learned Project and the Haiti Working Group. He joined USIP in 2001 and has worked for the Professional Training program and the Rule of Law program. He was also a senior fellow in the Jennings Randolph Fellowship program. Before joining USIP, he served as deputy director of the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program at the U.S. Department of Justice. In that role, he was responsible for providing policy guidance and program direction for peacekeeping operations in Haiti, Bosnia, East Timor, and Kosovo and in postconflict environments in Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia. Perito previously was a career Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Department of State, retiring with the rank of minister counselor. His assignments included service as deputy executive secretary of the National Security Council (1988-89). He received a Presidential Meritorious Service Award in 1990 for his leadership of the U.S. delegation to the Angola peace talks. Before joining the Foreign Service, Perito served as a rural development officer with the Peace Corps in Nigeria. Perito has taught at Princeton, American, and George Mason Universities and holds a master's in peace operations policy from George Mason University.…