The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
942.
During 2008
and 2009, the SU produced three reports on Iraq, described in
more
detail in
Section 10.2:
•
a review of
the Basra PRT;600
•
a strategic
review of the Governorates Capacity Building
Project;601
and
•
a joint
paper with the MOD Development, Doctrine and Concepts Centre
on
civilian-military
relations in Basra.602
943.
On 19 March
2008, during a statement to Parliament on the launch of the
UK’s
National
Security Strategy, Mr Brown announced that:
“… the
National Security Strategy proposes a new departure – and
again,
it is
a lesson learned from recent conflicts ranging from Rwanda to
Bosnia to
Iraq,
Afghanistan and Somalia. It proposes to create a stand-by
international
civilian
capability so that for fragile and failing states, we can act
quickly and
comprehensively
by combining the humanitarian, peacekeeping, stabilisation
and
reconstruction
support that those countries need. In the same way as we
have
military
forces ready to respond to conflict, we must have civilian experts
and
professionals
ready to deploy quickly to assist failing states and to help
rebuild
countries
emerging from conflict, putting them on the road to economic
and
political recovery.
“I can tell
the house that Britain will start by making available a
1,000-strong UK
civilian
stand-by capacity that will include police, emergency service
professionals,
judges and
trainers. I am calling on EU and NATO partners to set high and
ambitious
targets for
their contributions to such a force.
…
“In order
to maximise our contribution to all the new challenges of
peacekeeping,
humanitarian
work and stabilisation and reconstruction, the Secretary of
State
for Defence
is also announcing this afternoon that, as part of a wider review,
the
Government
will now examine how our reserve forces can more effectively
help
with stabilisation
and reconstruction in post-conflict zones around the
world.”603
944.
The Cabinet
Office launched the Stabilisation Task Force Review of
Stabilisation
and Civil
Effect (shortened to Cabinet Office Task Force (COTF)) in June
2008.604
600
Paper
Stabilisation Unit, 3 September 2008, ‘Review of the Basra
Provincial Reconstruction Team’.
601
Paper
Stabilisation Unit, November 2008, ‘Strategic Review of DFID
Governorates Capacity Building
Programme’.
602
Paper
Stabilisation Unit and Development, Doctrine and Concepts Centre,
27 February 2009,
‘Civilian‑Military
Relations in Basra’.
603
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 19 March
2008, columns 927-928.
604
Letter
Aldred to Gould, 24 July 2008, ‘Stabilisation and Deployed Civil
Effect’ attaching Paper
Stabilisation
Review Team, 27 June 2008, ‘Stabilisation and Deployed Civil
Effect’.
516