Dutch Peacekeepers and Host Environments in the Balkans: An Ethnographic Perspective

Conduct and Discipline in Un Peacekeeping Operations: Culture, Political Economy and Gender

“…Nonetheless, several people saw locals as potentially dangerous, particularly if one acted inappropriately with women, and claimed that many traffic crashes between UN vehicles and local cars are intentional, the result of Lebanese attempts to get cash from the UN. This illustrates a phenomenon common to UN missions, in which peacekeepers operate in a UN bubble and advocate for separation, leading to cultural ignorance, in order, ironically, to avoid cultural misunderstandings (Sion 2008). As one high ranking peacekeeper said of relations with local communities: "Most Lebanese have grown up with UNIFIL.…”

“…The relationship between peacekeeping personnel and the local population is, as Heiberg notes, "a decisive element in determining the operation's success or failure" (1991: 147-48), which the problems of misconduct certainly illustrate. Lack of cultural knowledge about the society in which a mission is established occurs widely (Chopra and Hohe 2004, Myint-U and Sellwood 1999, Sion 2008. This has several special consequences related to SEA.…”

From the outside in: The negative spillover effects of boundary spanners' relations with members of other organizations

“…For instance, in our setting, Dutch peacekeepers reported problems with Bosnians, Chinese, Africans and others, due to cultural differences in expectations and behaviors (see the Research Context and Measures sections for more details). Regarding the lack of optimal conditions for cultural contact in peacekeeping contexts, peacekeepers and residents do not share cultural goals; for example, peacekeepers see themselves as sojourners or cultural tourists, while the locals are long‐term residents interested in rebuilding and revitalizing their country and culture (Sion, 2008). Members of the different national cultural groups also do not have equal status; peacekeepers from the developed countries often have more power and resources than locals or peacekeepers from developing countries (Duffey, 2001).…”

“…We also performed the mediation analyses in the reverse direction to check the robustness of our model and did not find support for that model. Past research on boundary spanning (Callister & Wall, 2001; Kellogg, Orlikowski, & Yates, 2006), peacekeeping (Duffey, 2001; Last, 2000; Sion, 2008), and the personal interview experiences of one of the authors at various times in the peacekeeping process, also suggest that our model is reasonable and feasible.…”

“…Furthermore, positive relationships with members of other organizations are important to creating a lasting and stable peace (Flint, 2001; Weiss, 1999). Unfortunately, in such complex or uncertain settings, where lack of coordination and differences in organizational goals abound, negative boundary spanning relationships seem to be common (Aall, 2000; Sion, 2008). Thus, our research context allows us to examine empirically the potential negative consequences of frequent boundary spanning contact in an uncertain, multi‐organizational setting.…”