Teaching Diversity and Multicultural Competence to French Peacekeepers

Abstract

Through the example of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), this article examines how intercultural skills are used by the French military in their daily life during a peacekeeping operation. As an essential part of professional military education and a component of military efficiency, cultural awareness is supposed to play a key role in fulfilling peacekeeping missions. The contention here is that there is a gap between the official discourse on cultural awareness and the way that the military experience their daily life and perceive multiculturalism during operations. Cultural diversity does not feature as a trump card, and national boundaries remain strong, in for example the compartmentalization of areas of operation and the restrictive UN and national rules of engagement. These limit the formal and informal contacts between contingents and with the population.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my colleague and fellow researcher Claude Weber and the referees for their comments.

Notes

See, Claude Weber and Saïd Haddad, ‘The French Experience with Cultural Diversity: An Overview’, in Cees M. Coops and Tibor Szircsvev Tresch (eds), Cultural Challenges in Military Operations, Rome: NATO Defence College, 2007, pp.109–22.

Available in English (at: www.defense.gouv.fr/content/download/134828/1175142/version/1/file/LivreBlancGB.pdf).

‘Les opérations d'aujourd'hui se déroulent de plus en plus au contact de la population, qui en est à la fois le milieu et l'enjeu’ [‘Today's operations increasingly involve contact with civilian populations which are both milieu and stakeholders’], Livre Blanc sur la Défense et la Sécurité nationale, p 202.

Established in 2005, the CICDE is under the Chief of Defence Staff, and is ‘associated with preliminary studies for the design of concept and doctrine; designs and updates joint forces concept and doctrine literature … supervises concept experimentations and proposes the adjustment necessary for a constantly evolving environment’ (at: www.cicde.defense.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/Presentation_CICDE_EN2.pdf).

Centre de doctrine d'emploi des forces, FT-01. Winning the Battle. Building Peace. Land Forces in Present and Future Conflicts, Armée de Terre, Paris, Jan. 2007, p.23.

Ibid, p.29.

There are three academies: the Military Academy of Saint Cyr, L'Ecole Militaire Interarmes (Officer Candidate School) and L'Ecole Militaire du Corps Technique et Administratif (Services).

CIMIC is defined as ‘the operational function designed to improve an armed force's incorporation into its human environment. Its aim is to facilitate the execution of the mission, the restoration of a normal security state and crisis management by civilian authorities, e.g., administration, humanitarian actions, and economic recovery.’ See ‘The French Armed Forces and Civil–Military Cooperation’, Ministry of Defence, Paris, Oct. 2005.

CICDE, ‘Concept de gestion de crise’ [‘Crisis management concept’], 2007 (in English at: www.cicde.defense.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/Crisis_Management_Correction2.pdf). See also n.4 above.

Donna J. Winslow, Lindy Heinecken and Joseph L. Soeters, ‘Diversity in the Armed Forces’, in Giuseppe Caforio (ed.), Handbook of the Sociology of the Military, New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 2003, pp.299–310.

Donna J. Winslow, Le régiment aéroporté du Canada en Somalie. Une enquête socio-culturelle [The Canadian Airborne Regiment in Somalia. A Socio-cultural Investigation], Ottawa: Commission d'enquête sur le déploiement des Forces canadiennes en Somalie [Commission of Inquiry into the Deployment of Canadian Forces in Somalia], 1997.

Béatrice Pouligny, Ils nous avaient promis la paix [They Had Promised Us Peace], Paris: Les Presses de Sciences Po, 2004, pp.186–7.

Ibid., p.187.

Fredrick Barth, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. The Social Organization of Culture Difference, Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 1998 [1969], pp.6,15.

See further information (at: www.defense.gouv.fr/ema/operations_exterieures/liban/dossier_de_reference/15_03_10_la_contribution_francaise_a_la_finul).

Denise Jodelet, ‘Représentation sociale: phénomènes, concept et théories’ [Social Representation: phenomena, concepts and theories], in Serge Moscovici (ed.), Psychologie sociale [Social Psychology], Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2003 [1984], pp.363–84.

Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, La construction sociale de la réalité [The Construction of Social Reality], Paris: Armand Colin, 1996 [1966].

Emile Durkheim, Les règles de la méthode sociologique [The Rules of the Sociological Method], Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2007 [1894].

See Elizabeth Picard, Liban Etat de discorde. Des fondations aux guerres fratricides [Lebanon, Discordant State. Roots of the Civil Wars], Paris: Flammarion, 1988; Georges Corm, Le Liban contemporain. Histoire et société [Contemporary Lebanon: History and Society], Paris: La Découverte, 2005.

Commandement de la Doctrine et de l'Enseignement Militaire Supérieur de l'Armée de Terre [now Centre de doctrine d'emploi des forces], ‘La Multinationalité’ [Multinationality], Objectif Doctrine, no.27, July 2001 (available in English at: www.cdef.terre.defense.gouv.fr/publications/Objdoc/objdoc27/objdoc_27.pdf).

Maren Tomforde, ‘How about Pasta and Beer? Intercultural Challenge of German–Italian Cooperation in Kosovo’, in Coops and Tresch (see n.1 above), pp.155–68.

Ray Murphy, UN Peacekeeping in Lebanon, Somalia and Kosovo. Operational and Legal Issues in Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, p.209.

Mériadec Raffray, ‘Le Cèdre et le Soldat. La présence militaire française au Liban entre 1978 et 1984’ [‘The cedar and the soldier. The French military presence in Lebanon, 1978–1984’], Cahier de la Réflexion doctrinale, CDEF, 12 Sept. 2006.

The percentages are: Shi'ia: 27.2; Sunni: 16.1; Maronite: 30.3 (1991–2004). Data from Oren Barak, ‘Towards a Representative Military? The Transformation of the Lebanese Officer Corps since 1945’, Middle East Journal, Vol.60, No.1, 2006, pp.75–93. See also Aram Nerguizian, The Lebanese Armed Forces. Challenge and Opportunities in Post-Syria Lebanon, Washington: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2009. The LAF claim, ‘The army contains the diversity of the Lebanese people and works on educating its soldiers according to the principles of patriotism that transcends above narrow belongingness whether sectarian, regional, or factional.’ Quoted at the Lebanese Army website, Kirras tawjihi (at: www.lebarmy.gov.lb/english/kirras.asp#8).

Nerguizian (see n.24 above). See also Elizabeth Picard, ‘Le Hezbollah, milice islamiste et acteur communautaire pragmatique’ [Hezbollah: Islamic militia and pragmatic community actor], in Franck Mermier and Elizabeth Picard (eds), Liban. Une guerre de 33 jours [Lebanon: A 33-Day War], Paris: La Découverte, 2007, pp.84–94.