During the last ten years, the Swedish Armed Forces has undergone a transformation in its shift toward worldwide peacekeeping operations. Subsequently, the Swedish government is moving away from conscription to an all-voluntary recruitment system. This transition may lead to substantial challenges in recruiting new soldiers for the Armed Forces as well as for peacekeeping operations. A key to successful recruitment is understanding what motivates young men and women to participate in peacekeeping operations. This research note addresses questions about what motivated Swedish peacekeeping soldiers to join the 5th mission to Liberia and the 14th mission to Kosovo in 2006. Fabrizio Battistelli’s motivation typology, paleomodern, modern, and postmodern, is used in the analysis. The results show that all three motives were represented but that postmodern motives were by far the most common motivator.
The new all-volunteer military force system will begin from July 1, 2010. Ett användbart försvar - försvarspolitisk proposition2008/09:140. http://regeringen.se/sb/d/11788/a/122957 (2009-04-03).
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Since the beginning of 2004, Sweden contributed over 200 soldiers and officers to The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) incorporated in a battalion with Ireland as the Leading Nation. The battalion was stationed in the northern outskirts of Monrovia and had the task of being the UNMIL’s reserve and Quick Reaction Force. The Swedish contingent was located in Camp Victoria in Ajvalija/Hajvali, in the Area of Responsibility (AOR) of the Multinational Task Force Center (MNTF-C).
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Fabrizio Battistelli , ‘‘Peacekeeping and the Postmodern Soldier,’’Armed Forces & Society23, 3 (1997): 467-84.
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The first two of these six months they conduct deployment training in Sweden before they are deployed.
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To be absolutely sure that the best soldiers submit their applications, officers (mainly platoon but also company commanders) use their own initiative to telephone conscription soldiers they know and like, or those who have been recommended to them by colleagues on National Service days or previous missions, to encourage or possibly persuade them to volunteer for a particular mission.
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Maren Tomforde , ‘‘Motivation and Self-Image among German Peacekeepers,’’International Peacekeeping12, 4 ( 2005): 576-85. The German Peacekeeping units to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH 7th and 8th contingents) as a part of the Stabilization Force (SFOR) in April 2003.
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Ljubica Jelusic , ‘‘Motivation for Participation in Peace Support Operations: Initial Finding among Slovenian Soldiers,’’ The Quarterly Journal III, 4 (2004): 35-42, 2009, https://consortium.pims.org/filestore2/download/1679/Initial%20Findings%20among%20Slovenian%20Soldiers.pdf.
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The study showed that motives changed from before deployment, during the mission and after the return home.
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Giuseppe Caforio, ‘‘Militärische UN-Einsätze: Italienische Erfahrungen,’’ in Friedensengel im Kampfanzug? Zu Theorie and Praxis militärischer UN-Einsätze, ed. Georg-Maria Meyer ( Opladen, Germany: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1996).
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J. Johan Österberg, and Berit Carlstedt, Värnpliktigas intresse för internationell tjänst och officersutbildning. Karlstad, Sweden: Försvarshögskolan, ILM Serie I: 48, 2008); Johan Österberg, Emma Jonsson and Peder Hyllgren, Förhållanden som bidrar till att värnpliktiga jägarsoldater söker internationell tjänst (Stockholm, Sweden: Försvarshögskolan, Serie 1:49, 2008).
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Fabrizio Battistelli , ‘‘Peacekeeping and the Postmodern Soldier,’’Armed Forces & Society23, 3 (1997): 467-84; Fabrizio Battistelli, Teresa Ammendola, and Maria Grazia Galatino, ‘‘The Fuzzy Environment and Postmodern Soldiers: The Motivations of the Italian Contingents in Bosnia,’’ in Small Wars and Insurgencies, ed., Erwin A. Schmidl A Frank Cass Journal10, 2 (1999): 138-60.
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Ronald Inglehart, The Silent Revolution (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977).
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David N. Gellner and Eric Hirsch, eds., Inside Organizations. Anthropologists at Work (Oxford, UK: Berg, 2001).
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Charlotte A. Davies, Reflexive Ethnography (London, UK: Routledge, 2008). Despite our efforts to choose our informants, we were unable to do so, meaning all the informants were selected by our point of contact during their pre-deployment training. This failure to influence the choice of informants may somewhat weaken the validity of the data gathered, although it is for the most part counterbalanced by the extensive information and knowledge acquired through the observations made and the informal interviews or ethnographic interviews conducted during our visits to Liberia and Kosovo.
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In seminars conducted by the author, c.a. twenty-five cadets were asked if they had been on peacekeeping missions and if so, why they went. Ten of them had been on missions to Kosovo, Afghanistan, or Tchad and all of them said it was for the adventure and for their own personal satisfaction.
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This motive was also mentioned when interviews were conducted with majors at the Swedish National Defence College on a two-year advanced commander course to become lieutenant colonel (2009-04-08).
Sion found that Dutch soldiers’ motivation for joining in peacekeeping missions to some degree could be described as ‘‘dark tourism’’ or as in the case of peacekeeping ‘‘war tourism.’’ Liora Sion, ‘‘Dutch Peacekeepers and Host Environments in the Balkans: An Ethnographic Perspective,’’ International Peacekeeping 15, 2 (2008): 201-13.
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One possible reason could be that in Sweden, it has been politically incorrect since the end of World War II to be, or express patriotic feelings among Swedish citizens.
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Andrew Jones , ‘‘Review of Gap Year Provision,’’ Research Report 555, (2004) Nottingham: DfES Publications; Mintel, ‘‘Student Travel-The Gap Era’’ - UK,’’ Mintel Group 2003.
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Natan Uriely , ‘‘Travelling Workers and Working Tourists’’ Variation across the Interaction between Work and Tourism,’’International Journal of Tourism Research2 (2001): 1-8.
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Fabrizio Battistelli , ‘‘Peacekeeping and the Postmodern Soldier,’’Armed Forces & Society23, 3 (1997): 467-84; Fabrizio Battistelli, Teresa Ammendola, and Maria Grazia Galatino, ‘‘The Fuzzy Environment and Postmodern Soldiers: The Motivations of the Italian Contingents in Bosnia,’’ in Small Wars and Insurgencies , ed. Erwin A. Schmidl ( A Frank Cass Journal, 10, 2, Autumn 1999): 138-60.
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Paolo Tripodi , ‘‘Peacekeeping: Let the Conscripts do the Job,’’Security Dialogue32 (2001): 155.
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Tripodi maintains that soldiering and peacekeeping are two quite separate activities and that combat training is not enough in peacekeeping operations. He also asserts that conscripts are less aggressive and have less military ethos than professional armies and probably never consider themselves warriors or combatants.
