ABSTRACT

This essay focuses on the idea of strategic peacekeeping – an operation that falls midway between classic peacekeeping and peace enforcement – and the ways in which it poses challenges to traditional military culture. It outlines the distinctive elements of military culture and the tensions that can arise between this culture and peacekeeping. The essay then examines how the effective performance of strategic peacekeeping requires changes in traditional military culture: these include the idea of the end-state, the use of force, flexibility in the chain of command, the ideas of neutrality and impartiality, the interaction of military and political actors, as well as the interactions between military and non-military actors such as NGOs in the area of operations.