Min gamla klasskamrat var aningen skeptisk; att säga att jag bygger fred dög tydligen inte. Och jag kan förstå det, fredsbyggande är ett abstrakt begrepp som inte säger så mycket. Så jag gav det långa svaret. Jag är handläggare på FBA:s program för avväpning, demobilisering och återanpassning av före detta kombattanter, eller DDR, Disarmament, Demobilization […]
In just about a week, the Viking-18 exercise will start. In rough figures, around 3000 people (out of which some 300 are civilians), of 60+ nationalities, will meet across nine international sites to do a multinational, joint and civil-military exercise. It is the grand finale of almost two years of hard work by a dedicated […]
Successful international peace operations call for strong and collaborative mission leadership teams, which are fully drawing on the benefits of diversity – including cultural, gender and geographic diversity. Peace operations today are called on to tackle complex challenges. The conflicts are often complicated and the settings often unpredictable, at times even dangerous. In the same […]
“… At one point during the war, my family managed to send me a message, to tell me that rebels had come to our home town Foya in Lofa County. It was in the early part of 1990 and they had attacked our village. One of the first to encounter the rebels was my brother, […]
Few people think about the vast expanse of the Russian Federation. Canada, the world’s second largest country, is not even half the size of the Russian Federation. Just imagine the logistics of running a country with an 11 hour difference between provinces like Kaliningrad and Kamchatka. Imagine monitoring the quality of the democratic process across […]
Irak ligger i ett av världens äldsta kulturområden, i det som en gång i tiden hette Mesopotamien. Tvåflodslandet, som det också kallades, ansågs utgöra civilisationens vagga. Det var här kilskriften utvecklades och den sumeriska kulturen blomstrade. Ni kanske har hört de otaliga berättelserna om Babylonien, eller om kung Hammurabis envälde? Ja, historierna är många och […]
As I wrote in a previous article at the FBA blog, the impact and cost of insecurity resulting from violent extremism is enormous and is a risk to Kenya’s development agenda. The radicalisation and violent extremist phenomena are disproportionately impacting youth and women from marginalised areas. There is growing global recognition that women play multiple […]
What is the OSCE? That is one of the most frequent questions I am asked when I tell people that I am on secondment from the FBA to the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, Austria, where I work as Gender Adviser. OSCE, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, was established in 1973. Today the […]
BOOM! Despite being prepared, and standing behind a reinforced concrete wall, we are all taken by surprise as the shockwave hits the wall followed by earth and debris raining down on the roof above. Somewhat shaken we remove our earplugs and await the signal “All clear” from the instructor before allowing the course participants to […]
”Vad gör just dig lämplig att ansvara för FBA:s insatsförberedande utbildningar?” hörde jag min blivande chef, Maria, fråga mig under anställningsintervjun. Jag våndades när jag fick frågan. Att vara ansvarig för att andra människor i möjligaste mån är rustade för sina kommande uppdrag i främmande miljöer, som i varierande grad är att betrakta som påfrestande […]