Just to build on Dr. Regehr's remarks, first, I think we have to recognize that a SHIRBRIG kind of mechanism that's placed in the United Nations will continue to run into all the kinds of difficulties that we've seen when it comes to getting the Security Council to act in a conflict-preventive capacity.
We've been talking about conflict prevention in the United Nations since the early 1990s, and yet when one looks at the amount of progress that has been made, it has been extremely modest.
Secondly, I think we also have to recognize that when it comes to intervening actors, and this is stated perhaps a little more clearly in my paper--which is going to be distributed to the members of the committee--what we often see is that sub-regional organizations or regional organizations are increasingly the first actors to intervene, and this is certainly true in sub-Saharan Africa.
There is greater will, there is greater political capacity, certainly on the part of the African Union, on the part of sub-regional organizations like ECOWAS, to actually do something. In fact, what has happened in a number of cases--Liberia, in Darfur, Sudan--is that regional organizations have sent troops, and then subsequent to that, there's been a double-hatting arrangement, where the UN gives its blessing to the mission and other international actors provide logistics and support.
But to come back to the notion of conflict prevention, I think a lot more has to be done to work with regional and sub-regional organizations to strengthen their capacities for conflict prevention. There has been an ongoing dialogue between the UN and the AU on this. It's been intermittent. It was much stronger under the previous Secretary General than it is under the current Secretary General, but I think there's a lot more that can be done there to recognize what is clearly the changing reality, that regional organizations are often the first line of defence when it comes to mobilizing forces for peace operations.