Conflict Management in International Missions
This book serves primarily as a field guide and curriculum for organisations training personnel for conflict management missions abroad.
Currently, a gap exists between practitioners and academia in the field of conflict management and peacebuilding. Few practitioners have studied conflict management, and few academics have experience as field workers. Conflict literature contains a range of important insights and analyses, but is useful only to a limited degree to practitioners. This book provides practitioners with a much needed guidebook which is easy to understand, is academically solid and identifies with their mission and helps them relate to real-time challenges in the field. The book focuses on a number of case studies, including peacebuilding efforts in East Timor, and offers a range of practical advice for persons about to embark on a mission, from the receipt of an appointment to establishment in the field and encountering the realities and practical challenges that handling conflicts may imply.
This book will be of much interest to students of conflict management, peacebuilding and conflict resolution, as well as to practitioners in the field.
Olav Ofstad is an independent researcher and consultant in the field of conflict management, humanitarian assistance and development.
Security and Conflict Management
Series Editors:
Fen Osler Hampson
Carleton University, Canada
Chester Crocker
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Pamela Aall
United States Institute of Peace, Washington DC
This series will publish the best work in the field of security studies and conflict management. In particular, it will promote leading-edge work that straddles the divides between conflict management and security studies, between academics and practitioners, and between disciplines.
Negotiation and Conflict Management
I. William Zartman
Conflict Management and African Politics
Negotiation, mediation, and politics
Edited by Terrence Lyons and Gilbert M. Khadiagala
International Conflict Mediation
New approaches and findings
Edited by Jacob Bercovitch and Scott Sigmund Gartner
International Mediation in Civil Wars
Bargaining with bullets
Timothy D. Sisk
Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding
Moving from violence to sustainable peace
Edited by Bruce Dayton and Louis Kriesberg
Theory and Practice of International Mediation
Selected essays
Jacob Bercovitch
UN Sanctions and Conflict
Responding to peace and security threats
Andrea Charron
Territorial Disputes and Conflict Management
The art of avoiding war
Rongxing Guo
Aid, Insurgencies and Conflict Transformation
When greed is good
Rob Kevlihan
Human Security in Turkey
Challenges for the 21st century
Edited by Alpaslan zerdem and Fsun zerdem
Understanding Complex Military Operations
A case study approach
Edited by Volker Franke, Karen Guttieri and Melanne A. Civic
Regional Organisations and Peacemaking
Challengers to the UN
Edited by Peter Wallensteen and Anders Bjurner
International Mediation Bias and Peacemaking
Taking sides in civil wars
Isak Svensson
Conflict Management in International Missions
A field guide
Olav Ofstad
Conlict Management in International Missions
A field guide
Olav Ofstad
First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2015 Olav Ofstad
The right of Olav Ofstad to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ofstad, Olav.
Conflict management in international missions : a field guide / Olav Ofstad.
pages cm. (Routledge studies in security and conflict management)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Conflict managementStudy and teaching. 2. Pacific settlement of international disputesStudy and teaching. 3. Peace-buildingStudy and teaching. I. Title.
JZ5534.O47 2014
303.69dc23
2014029399
ISBN: 978-1-138-79418-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-75938-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
Staff on international missions may experience conflict in a number of ways, ranging from the challenges of peace operations and third-party interventions to personal conflicts, falling out with local communities and exposure to attacks.
Handling conflict can be a complex and challenging task, and in hectic and challenging field missions we often have to make quick decisions.
Most of us are not skilled conflict managers. During my years in international missions I have been concerned by the lack of conflict management skills among international personnel. Evidently there is a need for support to make sound choices.
How can we access such support in critical situations? There is a wide range of literature addressing various aspects of conflict. Some of it is theoretical, offering comprehensive academic discussions with incisive analyses but limited practical conclusions. Some of it is more practical, offering advice on specific challenges found in peacebuilding, organisational or personal conflicts, communication and more.
It may, however, be a time-consuming and difficult task to find the advice needed, and field staff will often have to rely on their own judgement.
I came to think that it would be useful to provide struggling colleagues with a tool to manage conflict effectively; I envisioned a book tailored to the realities on the ground, transforming conflict theory into something tangible and practical. It should be a relatively brief, concise book, addressing typical field mission challenges, offering relevant advice when needed and a good overall understanding of conflict management.
In 2001 I wrote a book for the Norwegian Defence International Centre, which in 2003 was translated into English under the titles Conflict Management in International Peace Operations: A Handbook for Officers and Soldiers. The feedback from military personnel was that this book offered advice needed in real-life situations, and met the needs of training curricula. The present book aims to do the same for all international personnel.
