The Limits and Opportunities of Peacekeeping Training and Education 【Article】

Over the period of the last fourteen or so years conflict- the fundamental characteristics thereof- hasundergone a tremendous metamorphosis. The observation is not one made in vain. It is important to consider as it is the very raison d'être for the increased attention and focus on the issues of educationand training for peacekeeping operations. It has promoted an evolution in the way in which we respondto conflict and then by default, in the ways in which we prepare therefore. Modern day operationsincorporate an ever widening range of activities which may be political, economic, social, humanitarian,and military.The aim of this paper then is to explore the concepts of educationand trainingas they relate to thepreparation of military, police, and civilian personnel. Comprehensive training is so essential to enablethem to individually and then jointly function in a complex multi-dimensional setting to achieve the ulti-mate purpose of maintaining international peace and security. To this effect, the paper looks at thetraining needs and challenges facing these elements. In other words, in order for them to better con-tribute in an operation, what skills on top of the ones they already have must we cultivate and buildupon, and in trying to do so, what obstacles do we face and what are some of the ways we can addressthem? Multinationalism of peace operations guarantees that we will encounter the problem of wide dis-crepancies between the skills and abilities of the different national contingents. Thus the need to devel-op some common standards in training content and methodology is high lighted. On the issue ofmethodology, the question posed is, how do we train? How do we impart knowledge and developskills? Several methodologies are considered and the paper reveals both the opportunities and limitsthey present. In considering these it is demonstrated how the best training strategy is one that employs acombination of methods.