Attempting to Serve with Pride and Dignity: A Discourse Analysis Exploring Swedish Peacekeepers' Pre-Mission Education on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Abstract: The United Nations peacekeeping operations is a unique global partnership to maintain international peace and security. However, several reports in the last three decades show allegations of peacekeeper soldiers sexually exploiting and abusing the civilians of host nations. While research have investigated these misconducts and how to prevent future cases, there are still questions about the preventative measures. Thus, this thesis examines and investigates peacekeeper soldiers’ pre-mission education about sexual exploitation and abuse, through critical discourse analysis and a theoretical framework of critical military theory and ideas of Foucault. To investigate this, the project uses the Swedish Armed Forces as a case study to interview Swedish soldiers about their perceptions. This data is reinforced by the United Nations’ educational material. The study finds that the United Nations’ pre-mission education construct -through power, knowledge, and discourse– specific interpretations of soldiers, victims, and civilians in the peacekeeping context that affects soldiers’ work. The education also provides a standard practice of how to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse in United Nations’ peacekeeping operations. However, Swedish soldiers believe there is minor complications in how this education is presented to soldiers in troop-contributing countries that have previous knowledge of gender, sexual exploitation, and misconducts.