DefenseNews

Posted 10/03/05 13:10

U.S. Marines Get Crisis Management Training
By GERARD O'DWYER, HELSINKI

Senior and middle-ranking U.S. Marine Corps officers are learning crisis
management skills at the Finnish United Nations Training Center, housed
within the Niinisalo Artillery Brigades headquarters at Niinisalo,
southern Finland.

The two-week course teaches techniques and skills useful in peacekeeping
missions, policing, negotiating and calming tense situations. This is
the first time Marine officers have participated in courses run by the
center.

The courses use role-playing situations and events frequently
experienced between soldiers and civil authorities on peacekeeping
missions. Veteran Finnish U.N. officers with mission experience in
Kosovo and Kabul adopt the persona of local officials and civilian
protesters. The Marines practice situations such as making contact with
town mayors who say the citizens are complaining about polluted water
supplies.



The 15-Marine group is drawn from the organization's Civil and Military
Cooperation company of Marine Corps reservists. Most have experienced
cross-cultural problems and contacts on work-related assignments in
Japan and Niger. The group includes lawyers, engineers, business
executives and a museum curator.

"The reservists have solid military training behind them, and demanding
tasks in Iraq, Afghanistan or Africa ahead of them," said course leader
Mikko Kurko. "What we hope to instill in these U.S. Marines is healthy
common sense. They will need special skills to deal with everyday
problems that are both simple and complicated in their nature."

Marine Col. Jeffrey Acosta said the troops decided to enroll in the
Niinisalo U.N. Training Center to learn their "practical people skills"
and to better understand intercultural differences and misunderstandings
that come with international peacekeeping missions.

"Our military training does include crisis management skills to some
degree," Acosta said. "While the books that we read at American military
academies do include and cover instruction on cultural interaction, the
practice is somewhat hit-and-miss out in the field."

He said the instructors are quick to point out mistakes.

"The value of this type of situation training is very significant. What
we learn through the course set here includes instruction on the seating
arrangements for negotiators, what beverages to have available, and
other simple but extremely practical matters," Acosta said.

After the course, the group will return to their base at Camp Lejeune,
N.C., to evaluate what they learned. The Marine Corps already expects to
send more officers to Finland for training.

"Modern warfare requires soldiers to have completely new kinds of
skills. It used to be that the soldiers would fight and the Red Cross
would take care of the rest. Nowadays soldiers and civilians work
together in joint Civil-Military Cooperation units," said Kurko.

The Niinisalo U.N. Training Center's primary role is to contribute to
the NATO Partnership for Peace program by providing military observer
training.

Established in 1969, the center was merged into the Finnish
International Centre in 2001. Since 1984, the center has seen regular
attendance by officers from various NATO and Central and Eastern
European countries, the Baltic, Asian and South American states.

In June 1995, the U.N. Training Center organized special courses for
instructors from NATO, North Atlantic Cooperation Council and
Partnership for Peace countries. Peacekeeper training has become a
fast-growing sector as a result of NATO's Partnership for Peace program
and cooperation among Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe countries. *