ABSTRACT
As initially outlined in the introduction, the book aims to consider the socialisation properties of the training provided by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) and the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) as formal organisations. This implies that both centres as institutions, and their training efforts, have the scope to induct participants to the norms and principles of a given community (Checkel 2005: 804). The latter could be the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU), or other regional entities such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), depending on which one heads the peace support operation. The UN as the primary institution for maintaining international peace and security is a leading actor in setting training benchmarks, advocating peacekeeping standards, and facilitating the harmonisation of training efforts. Peacekeeping training as a form of socialisation is therefore discussed against the background that KAIPTC and ACCORD’s training does not only transfer technical knowledge, but changes participants’ attitudes and behaviour to the extent that international norms of the liberal peace paradigm are valued above anything else and become second nature. In this way, peacekeeping training is understood as an exercise to reshape norms, in order to achieve a standardisation of principles and operational unity.
