Cultural Differences in Multinational Peace Operations: A Slovenian Perspective

Abstract

The article is based on research conducted at the Defence Research Centre, emphasizing the qualitative data gathering conducted among members of the Slovenian Armed Forces (SAF) in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL II) mission in 2007–09. Complex peace operations, as opposed to traditional ones, require a multinational structure and cooperation with several non-military actors/subjects. Trying to be effective, doing the job as well as possible and surviving the situation of living in a limited area with formal and informal interaction with a small number of people takes well-defined rules and procedures as well as the awareness of the importance of integrating mechanisms. Culture, encompassing the military organizational culture as well as the so-called ‘national culture’, undeniably has a substantial impact on the relations within a given multinational operation. Within the cultural framework, the common language or lingua franca deserves special attention.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank members of the SAF who participated in this research and contributed to the new findings. Special thanks are also due to Maren Tomforde who made this special edition possible.

Notes

Ljubica Jelušič, ‘Cultural Challenges for Small Countries in Mission Abroad’, in Cees M. Coops and Tibor Szvircsev Tresch (eds), Cultural Challenges in Military Operations, Rome: NATO Defence College, 2007, pp.40–1.

The SAF took over the area of responsibility in Kosovo for the first time in 2007.

Technical Arrangement on the Operating of the Multinational Land Force (MLF), Ljubljana, 21 Oct. 1999; Jelušič (see n.1 above), p.39.

As a rule, the official language is English. However, certain nations experience great difficulties due to insufficient language knowledge. Slovenians customarily begin to learn a foreign language in primary school and thus have an advantage in this area.

Jelušič (see n.1 above), p.40.

SAF (at: www.slovenskavojska.si/en/international-cooperation/international-operations-and-missions) (13 May 2009).

Interviews with members of the five Slovenian contingents in UNIFIL II in Jan., Mar., Oct. 2008 and Feb. 2009 in Slovenia and Dec. 2008 in Lebanon.

Government of the Republic of Slovenia, ‘Decision of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia on Deployment of the Slovenian Armed Forces to the UNIFIL II Mission in Lebanon’, Government meeting No.87, Ljubljana, 7 Sept. 2006, at: http://193.2.236.95/dato3.nsf/OC/0609071505137/$file/sevl87.doc.

Ljubica Jelušič, 'Mirovne operacije: opredelitve, problemi, prihodnost [Peace operations: definitions, problems and the future], in idem (ed.), Mirovne operacije in vloga Slovenije [Peace Operations and the Role of Slovenia], Ljubljana: FDV, 2005, pp.11–32.

Uma Sekaran and Coral R. Snodgrass, ‘Organizational Effectiveness and Its Attainment: A Cultural Perspective’, in C.A.B. Osigweh (ed.), Organizational Science Abroad: Constraints and Perspectives, New York: Plenum, 1989, pp.269–92.

‘Socialisation in society’ (Kadir A. Varoglu, ‘Cross-Cultural Differences in Perception of Management Processes and Their Impact on Joint Training Policies of NATO’, NATO Training Group, Vienna, 1999 (at: www.kho.edu.tr/english/institute/nato/public_html/sp18.doc); ‘inculturation’ (Stane Južnič, Antropologija [Anthropology], Ljubljana: DZS, 1987, p.55).

Geert H. Hofstede, Culture's Consequences, London: Sage, 2001, p.374.

Anne Marie Soederberg and Merete Wedell Wedellsborg, ‘Challenges to Uniformity: Managing the Changing Identities of Multinational Military Units’, Royal Danish Defence College research paper, 2006 (at: www.forsvaret.dk/fak/documents/fak/fmlp/ilo/filer/chtouniformity26maj05.pdf).

Varoglu (see no.11 above), pp.1–2.

Christopher Dandeker and James Gow, ‘Military Culture and Strategic Peacekeeping’, in Erwin A. Schmidl (ed.), Peace Operations between War and Peace, London: Frank Cass, 2000, pp. 58–79; Maja Garb, Demobilizacija in reintegracija vojaškega osebja v razmerah sodobne družbene tranzicije [Demobilization and Reintegration of the Military Personnel in the Transition Period], Ljubljana: FDV, 2002, p.23; Morris Janowitz, The Professional Soldier, London: Collier–Macmillian, 1960, p.175.

Stefan Seiler, ‘Determining Factors of Intercultural Leadership – a Theoretical Framework’ in Cees M. Coops and Tibor Szvircsev Tresch (eds), Cultural Challenges in Military Operations, Rome: NATO Defence College, 2007, p.219.

As defined by P. Christopher Earley and Soon Ang, a level of cognitive flexibility enables the individual to process and accept different cultures within the barriers of his or her own social and cultural background (Cultural Intelligence: Individual Interactions across Cultures, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003, p.71). Michael Kobi also notes that cultural intelligence is a capability to adapt to the environment (‘Doing the Right Thing the Right Way: The Challenge of Military Mission Effectiveness in Peace Support Operations in a “War amongst the People” Theatre’, in Coops and Tresch [see n.16 above], pp.254–5).

Tibor Tresch Szvircsev and Nicasia Picciano, ‘Effectiveness within NATO's Multicultural Military Operations’, in Coops and Szvircsev Tresch (see n.16 above), pp.11–23.

To date, Slovenian contingents have consisted of only a few soldiers (four in Iraq – NATO training mission; 14 in Chad – Tchad/CAR; two in Syria – UNTSO; approximately 30 in Bosnia – EUFOR; approximately 70 in Afghanistan – ISAF; 14 in Lebanon – UNIFIL).

Government of the Republic of Slovenia (see n.8 above).

Hofstede (see no.12 above), p.501.

Niko Toš, ‘Pogovor o vrednotah [Discussion about values]', pp.19–22, and Janek Musek, ‘Raziskovanje vrednot v Sloveniji in vrednotni univerzum Slovencev' [Discussing values in Slovenia and the Slovenian value system], pp.151–67, both in J. Drnovšek (ed.), Pogovori o prihodnosti Slovenije [Discussion about the Future of Slovenia], Ljubljana: Urad Predsednika Republike Slovenije, 2003; Vesna Vuk Godina, ‘Dobili smo celofan zahodnoevropske družbe’ [We received the cellophane of European society], Mladina, Vol.27, 2009, pp.37–41.

Rachel F. Baskerville, ‘Hofstede Never Studied Culture’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol.28, 2003, pp.1–14.

Brendan McSweeney, ‘Hofstede's Model of National Cultural Differences and Their Consequences: A Triumph of Faith – a Failure of Analysis’, Human Relations, Vol.55, No.1, 2002, pp.89–118; Baskerville (see n.23 above).

Maren Tomforde, ‘My Pink Uniform Shows I Am One of Them: Socio-cultural Dimensions of German Peacekeeping Missions', in Gerhard Kümmel, Giuseppe Caforio and Christopher Dandeker (eds), Armed Forces, Soldiers and Civil–Military Relations: Essays in Honour of Jürgen Kuhlmann, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, pp.37–57.

Only some of the collected data are used in this article, since the research is ongoing.

Anthony King, ‘Towards a Transnational Europe: The Case of the Armed Forces’, European Journal of Social Theory, Vol.8 No.3, 2005, pp.321–40.

Ninety-three per cent of the population declared themselves Slovenians and only seven per cent as members of some other ethnic group: Slovenian Public Opinion Survey 2009/2. Marjan Malešič, et al., ‘Slovenian Public Opinion 2009/2: Opinions about National and International Security’ [data file], Ljubljana: Faculty of Social Sciences, Centre for Public Opinion Research and Mass Media, and Ljubljana: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences, Archive of Social Data, 2010.

Hofstede (see no.12 above), pp.500–501.

Saleh Al-Zu'bi. ‘Cultural Challenges for Peacekeeping Missions: The Jordanian Experience’, in Coops and Tresch (see n.16 above), p.114.

Maren Tomforde, ‘How About Pasta and Beer? Intercultural Challenges of German–Italian Cooperation in Kosovo’, in Coops and Tresch (see n.16 above), pp.159,161.

Varouglu (see n.11 above), p.5.

Interview with members of the fifth Slovenian contingent, Ljubljana, Feb. 2009.

Garb (see n.15 above), p.49.

Karen Dunivin, ‘Military Culture: Change and Continuity’, Armed Forces and Society, Vol.20, No.4, 1994, p.534.

‘Military Doctrine of the Slovenian Armed Forces’, Doctrine, Development, Education and Training Command, Ljubljana, 2006.

Data on female members of the SAF deployed in operations were gathered from interviews in April 2009.

The index data show that Northern and Western countries are far more individualistic than the countries of the former Yugoslavia, and Portugal, Greece and Turkey, which exhibit more collectivistic values.

Vuk Godina (see n.22 above), pp.37–41.

Hofstede (see n.12 above), pp.225–34.

Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture, Garden City, NY: Anchor, 1976.

According to Hofstede (see n.12 above, p.303), one of the very characteristics of masculine cultures that sets them apart from feminine ones, is the masculine culture's perception of winning and the high importance of (competitive) sports.

Interview with members of the fifth Slovenian contingent, Ljubljana, Feb. 2009.

Hofstede (see n.12 above), pp.145–9.

‘Military Doctrine of the Slovenian Armed Forces’ (see n.36 above), p.76.

Jelušič (see n. 1 above), pp.41–3.

Ibid.

Joseph Soeters and René Moelker, ‘German–Dutch Co-operation in the Heat of Kabul’, in Gerhard Kümmel and Sabine Collmer (eds), Soldat–Militär–Politik–Gesellschaft [Soldier–Military–Politics–Society], Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2003, pp.63–75.

Varoglu (see n.11 above), p.5.

Interviews (see n.7 above).

Interviews with commanders of the second and fifth Slovenian contingents, Ljubljana, Jan. 2008 and Feb. 2009.

Interview with an Italian officer conducted in Tibnin and Shama, Dec. 2008.

Ibid.

Interviews with members of the fifth Slovenian contingent, Dec. 2008 in Shama.

The scale used for these questions was 1–5, 1 being the lowest grade.

Jelušič (see n.1 above), pp.41–4.

Interviews (see n.51 above).

Interview (see n.43 above).