Dutch Peacekeepers and Host Environments in the Balkans: An Ethnographic Perspective

Abstract

This article focuses on the ways in which Dutch peacekeepers in Bosnia (SFOR8) and Kosovo (KFOR2) in 1999–2000 perceived local populations and host countries. It analyses the tension between military combat socialization and peacekeeping missions through ethnographic fieldwork and by borrowing tools from tourism and expatriate theories. Derived from the ‘tourist space’ concept, soldiers construct a spurious ‘peacekeeping space’, which confirms their combat and masculine beliefs that the contrived images which the military establishment has created in the first place are borne out by the reality of the deployment.