Description
United Nations (UN) peacekeepers operate in some of the most fraught regions worldwide. As such, UN’s most active contributors have offered their experience to assist newest Troops Contributing Countries (TCCs) in their pre-deployment training (PDT). Accordingly, we should expect recipients to implement teachings as they have been conveyed by the provider. And yet, militaries change the way specific practices are employed and tweak their approach to military operations. Why do militaries adapt dissimilarly using the same practice? This paper provides a two-fold contribution to the literature on force structure and military transformation. First, it explores a non-Western case of redesign in peacekeeping operations, a subject that remains largely under-treated. Second, the paper shows how variations in the time available to adopt a certain practice may drive armed forces to revise similar operational challenges in a different way. To this end, I examine the Female Engagement Team (FET) in mission training delivered by the United Kingdom (UK) to
Zambia forces since 2016 and subsequent Zambia transformation and deployment in
United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). Findings suggest that Zambia forces revised and implemented the FET practice differently in terms of unit composition and operational activities.
