Peacekeeping in South Sudan : One Year of Lessons from Under the Blue Beret

A scholarly perspective of a soldier's own challenges working in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). This work examines how regional/cultural knowledge and language ability contribute to improved leadership in a UN operation, based on the author's own experiences as a staff officer in South Sudan.

Over the last fifteen years, the U.S. military has realized culture matters and that American forces are more effective in nation-building if soldiers know more about the peoples and places where they serve. Building on this supposition, this book examines how cross-cultural competence and language ability contribute to improved teamwork and leadership in complex multinational operations, focusing on the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). The chapters analyze the dynamics within the mission as well as influences from the surrounding society and how they affect success within the diverse peacekeeping environment. The work then concludes with a look at leadership effectiveness and enduring lessons from within UNMISS. Author Robert Munson draws on his own rich background, academic mindset (including field research in Africa), as well as his U.S. Air Force experience to provide an encompassing examination of this peacekeeping operation from his own mid-level perspective, giving depth to the conclusions through historical comparisons and contemporary stories and observations.