Security is enhanced when nations share information and combine military might
UNIPATH STAFF
It’s hard to find a success story as sudden as that of Combined Task Force 151 (CTF 151), the multinational anti-piracy armada formed in Bahrain in 2009 to clear the seas of Somali piracy.
Just months after the combined naval forces began patrolling off the Horn of Africa, the scourge of dead sailors, looted cargo and multimillion-dollar ransoms began to diminish. By 2014, commanders of CTF 151 announced that Somali piracy had been reduced to near zero. Not a single ship was successfully hijacked.
Along with its partner task forces in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf — Combined Task Forces 150 and 152 — the anti-piracy coalition is a triumph of cooperative security. Militaries are only as effective as the partnerships they build, the information they share and the interoperability they enhance with friendly nations.
Bahrain, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all played roles in one or more of the task forces, along with partners from the United States, Europe and East Asia.
“No one nation alone can resolve this menace. Piracy is a shared challenge which can only be addressed through collaborative and comprehensive international efforts,” said Commodore Zahid Ilyas of the Pakistan Navy, who assumed command of CTF 151 in December 2015. “During my command, I shall continue to deter and disrupt piracy while maintaining a flexible approach in coordination.”
Cooperative security takes many shapes. It can be represented by multinational military operations such as those engaged in stabilizing Afghanistan. It can be peacekeeping missions abroad under the banner of the United Nations. And it need not always involve military action, as evidenced by international disaster relief operations and global agreements governing cyber security.
Peace and stability operations throughout the Middle East and Central Asia have attracted broad coalitions. For example, both Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have devoted years to helping Afghanistan emerge from decades of bloodshed and civil war.
Jordan has focused on providing engagement teams as part of a culturally sensitive humanitarian mission. Army imams and female engagement teams fanned out across the country.
As one of the Jordanian commanders, Col. Mohammad Al-Khraisha, said at the end of a six-month stint at Bagram Air Force Base: Jordan continues the Afghan mission because it believes that global peace and security can be achieved only through combined efforts and strong ties between nations.
The UAE dubbed its Afghanistan humanitarian mission Winds of Goodness. Its troops view their role as supporting social and economic development in underserved, remote communities in the Central Asian country. The construction of medical clinics, schools, mosques, roads and wells was central to the mission.
Another active coalition is Operation Inherent Resolve, the air campaign designed to weaken and dislodge Daesh terrorists from Syria and Iraq. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have participated in some of the thousands of coalition air strikes in Syria. Jordanian pilots have flown similar missions in Syria and Iraq. Egypt has conducted strikes against Daesh targets in neighboring Libya.
Additionally, a Saudi-led coalition of nine Arab states has joined with Yemen to battle Houthi fighters threatening the peace and stability of that country. The coalition, which includes the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, is an example of the benefits derived from joining forces to protect the region from malevolent forces.
Farther from home, United Nations peacekeeping missions have enlisted thousands of Egyptian, Jordanian and Pakistani security forces. Countries such as Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Sudan have benefited from their generosity.
The recent flooding in the Middle East in late 2015 and early 2016 reaffirmed the need for flexible military forces able to assist in natural disasters. Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Yemen all suffered from record-breaking rainfall, including storms produced by two rare Indian Ocean hurricanes that skirted the Arabian Peninsula.
Some of the lifesaving skills employed against the flooding were honed by helping Nepal recover from a deadly earthquake that struck the South Asian country in April 2015. Pakistan, for example, provided field hospitals and search and rescue teams to aid the stricken Nepalese. The UAE rushed medical supplies, food and tents to Nepal’s homeless.
In the field of counternarcotics — a special concern for Central Asian nations used as smuggling routes for opium traffickers — cooperative security isn’t optional but essential. Multinational training for border guards, counternarcotics officers and customs officials are a frequent occurrence in places such as Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Afghanistan.
Finally, cooperation has become a critical component of cyber security. U.S. Central Command’s annual Central Region Communications Conference in Washington, D.C., is one such attempt to build a network of military-oriented cyber security professionals. The goal is to build resilience throughout the region against computer hackers trying to weaken national defenses and disrupt society.
If militaries of the Middle East and South and Central Asia have learned one thing over the past few decades confronting regional challenges, it’s that we’re all stronger when we’re working together.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
- Does your country participate in military partnerships, multilateral exercises and peacekeeping missions?
- How does the experience help build better Soldiers or improve national security?
- How are military partnerships and peacekeeping missions changing?
Unipath welcomes your ideas, articles, and photos at CENTCOM.UNIPATH@MAIL.MIL