Challenges Forum: A platform for improving peace operations
3 maj, 2018
Recently I joined the team at the International Secretariat of the Challenges Forum, or to give its full name: The International Forum for the Challenges of Peace Operations. Challenges Forum, CF for short, is a global partnership of 49 leading organizations and departments working on peace operations, representing 22 countries from across all regions of […]
Men du unga man…
30 april, 2018
…hör jag mig själv säga högt i lunchrummet som en reaktion på en av våra praktikanters något underhållande fråga gällande min matlåda. I samma stund skäms jag. Jag har inte bara använt mig av en härskarteknik utan även agerat på en stereotyp bild av unga män som odugliga i köket. Jag av alla personer borde […]
Men vad jobbar du med – egentligen?
17 april, 2018
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 […]
Time for the Vikings to set sail again
10 april, 2018
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 […]
Teaming up for peace – the importance of strong mission leadership teams
26 mars, 2018
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 […]
En vecka med liberianska fredsledare
20 mars, 2018
“… 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, […]
Russian presidential elections: observing democratic process in the world’s largest country
13 mars, 2018
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 […]
Återuppbyggnad och försoning i tvåflodslandet
5 mars, 2018
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 […]
The role of women in violent extremism in Kenya
28 februari, 2018
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 […]
OSCE – the unknown security organization
21 februari, 2018
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 […]