In early 2025, 17 participants, including military officers from various national forces, police
officers and three students, gathered at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College in
Hamburg to take part in the United Nations Staff Officer Course (UNSOC). Certified by the
United Nations Department of Peace Operations, the three-week course aimed to prepare
participants for future deployments in UN peace operations across the globe.
While originally designed with military staff officers in mind, the course also recognizes the
importance of multidimensional missions and therefore opens its doors to civilians, such as
Fredderic, Charlotte and myself, Jan, hailing in from the BSH. This blend of backgrounds
facilitates understanding and collaboration across different decision-making styles, logics,
and cultures, which is absolutely essential in the complex environment of peacekeeping. For
us civilians, entering a military-led setting initially felt challenging, not the least because of
the many abbreviations which would come our way. That being said, the three weeks turned
into an immensely positive learning experience for us and our counterparts, and helped
significantly to de-silo the military and civilian spheres.
The first week of the program laid the foundational framework for UN peacekeeping
operations. Through a combination of lectures, discussions, and interactive sessions, we
explored the UN system, mandates, and the legal underpinnings of peacekeeping, such as
the UN Charter, Rules of Engagement, and International Humanitarian Law. The course
emphasized the often-overlooked distinction between impartiality and neutrality in peace
operations: while peacekeepers must treat all parties equally, they are still required to act
decisively to protect civilians and uphold the mandate.
Particularly memorable were the sessions led by Martin Kobler, former Special
Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for MONUSCO, during week two. His
classes, which are seemingly mentioned in almost every UNSOC BSH report you can read
here, provided us with an in-depth account of the personal challenges of managing a
mission, between politics in New York and occasional demonstrations on the ground.
Further, we explored the high-stakes, psychological pressures and rhetorical traps one can
encounter as negotiator through a simulation of a recent real-life example from international
politics.
This week subsequently shifted the focus to more operational and tactical components.
Logistics, information gathering, mine and IED awareness, and Force HQ structures were
key topics. For civilian participants, this was particularly insightful in order to understand how
the military structures its operations, approaches threat environments, and how this differs
from civilian or humanitarian approaches. These sessions consequently led us gain greater
awareness of the underpinning intentions behind the sometimes significant differences im
behaviour.
We also delved into topics such as gender in peacekeeping, conflict-related sexual violence,
and the work of humanitarian actors. Lectures, including from external experts, highlighted
both the progress and persistent gaps in these areas. Peacekeeping, in turn, is not just
about deploying troops, but also about creating an environment conducive for human
security.
In the final week, all theory was put to the test during the MAPEX (Map Exercise). In teams
replicating a real UN mission HQ, we responded to evolving challenges in the fictional
post-conflict country of Carana. Each of us assumed a staff officer role in charge of
operations, intelligence, logistics or human rights affairs, among others. Drawing on lessons
from the previous weeks, we developed courses of action and briefed our force commander
on how to respond to a deteriorating security situation. This exercise offered us a glimpse
into the complex reality of decision-making in the field.
Beyond the curriculum, what made UNSOC truly memorable were the people. We were
fortunate to listen to officers with peacekeeping experience in Mali and the Western Sahara,
in addition to the wealth of experience provided by Col GS Wiedekind and LTC Tillmann,
who embody the heart and soul behind the UNSOC, and to whom I want to extend special
thanks.
In the end, UNSOC is more than a training course. It is a laboratory for learning how to
navigate complexity with frustration tolerance, patience, and sometimes humour. Whether or
not deployment lies immediately ahead, I believe all of us left Hamburg better prepared to
contribute to peace in a world that rarely conforms to templates, training manuals or
checklists.
My thanks go to the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College, the organizing officers, guest
lecturers, and, of course, the BSH, for giving me the opportunity to participate in the
UNSOC. I can warmly recommend anyone reading this, to apply to its next edition.