The Experience of a Soldier : An Interview Study with Swedish Soldiers’ Serving in MINUSMA

Since the first peacekeeping operation in 1948, the global security environment has changed and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali - MINUSMA - established in 2013, has come to represent the emerging practice of deploying peacekeeping operations to asymmetric conflicts. Where there are on-going counter-terrorist operations, and no peace to keep. In 2014, the Swedish parliament passed a decision, that Sweden was to contribute with troops to MINUSMA, and nowadays, there is a political ambition for a long-term participation. Thus, the objective of this research is to examine the experiences of Swedish peacekeeping soldiers’ who have served in Mali by conducting a qualitative interview study. To better understand how they perceive and experience their service period and how the factors outlined in the ‘model of UN soldiers’ experience of their daily service’ influence it. The results from the interviews indicate that even though all soldiers’ has their own perception and experience of their service period, there are also many similarities, thus, a number of patterns were possible to discover. Further, all comments could somehow be linked to the service environment, which indicate that how the soldiers’ experience their service environment is dependent on the other factors outlined in the model. Due to Swedens long and well-established experience with peacekeeping operations, future studies could look at other peacekeeping missions