Languages and Peace Operations

Abstract

NATO forces were initially unprepared for the armed conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina from March 1992, and struggled to meet the challenges of bringing peace in an environment that was foreign in language and culture (Malcolm 2002; Bose 2002). The first units were deployed in November of that year, as part of Operation Grapple, and included some 2400 British military personnel. Most of the fighting was ended by the Dayton Peace Agreement of December 1995. Following that agreement, a series of NATO and EU interventions supervised the ending of the conflicts and the reconstruction efforts of the next decade.² British contingents were deployed as part of the UN peacekeeping force (UNPROFOR) from an early stage and continued to serve through successive phases of the intervention until they withdrew in 2007. This chapter examines how, although the British forces initially had little preparation for the linguistic and cultural conditions they would encounter. they quickly developed a more concerted approach to preparing for their involvement.

‘There was very little thought or planning done to how to organize linguistic support for an operation of that kind before it actually took place. And there was a lot of improvisation on the ground.’¹