Practical strategic policy development, security capacity building and professional development training.
https://lnkd.in/gMJfJERS This is the abstract The boredom of soldiers on peacekeeping missions cannot be reduced to the absence of combat. Boredom occurs when soldiers cannot find any activity which engages them. The activities they desire to perform, but cannot, are performances of their desired selves. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with Aotearoa New Zealand soldiers deployed to the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, this article argues that the self that cannot be performed is not always the warrior self, defined by combat experience. New Zealand peacekeepers’ boredom was caused not so much by lack of combat as by lack of opportunity to practice a neoliberal desire to work on and transform themselves. This was a form of ‘neoliberal boredom’: restlessness caused by desire with no fixed or specific object, as no one activity can continually provide new and transformative experiences. This case study demonstrates that we should be wary of reducing soldier boredom to single, or solely military, causes.
Greg Elliott
3d
There’s a surfeit of attacks on neoliberalism lately. I’m a fan of the School of Pragmatism in IR. When I arrived as J3, it was evident that RAMSI had fulfilled its mission. We were trying to find ways to keep the soldiers busy. Of course, sitting idle awaiting orders is part of soldiery. But idling indolently with no end in sight, while families wait at home because HQ can’t make a better decision seems wasteful and invites decay and disobedience. I recommended withdrawal, but MFAT said ‘we dont leave until the Aussies do’. So much for independance in FP! There was a simple reason for soldier restlessness - their constabulary presence had become redundant. Naturally, Army set extra training to keep restless hands out of trouble. But we all knew the game was up. RAMSI was never structured to address deeper underlying issues of governance. So there was a chance we’d be back (as it turned out). A better study for these types of missions (Afghan included) would be - when and how to leave.
Sustainability and Resilience
1wExcellent piece of work! Peculiar use of "neoliberal" though isn't it?