“COVID-19 Lived Experience: A Peacekeeper’s Account”

Abstract

This paper unveils peacekeepers’ lived experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, baptised as the new ‘second front’ for peacekeeping operations. By using an interpretative phenomenological method, the study finds that most peacekeepers situate themselves as a passive victim of the pandemic and a protagonist – confident to fight against the ‘second front’. The ‘stressful’ and ‘miserable’ experiences endured by the peacekeepers co-exist with a feeling that ‘there is nothing to get panicked about’ and a perception that the threat is ‘overhyped’. The pandemic has generated new concerns for the peacekeepers and magnified some pre-existing anxieties but did not replace them. Amid the usual dangers, concerns about the families at home, inability to express empathy towards colleagues and fear of being buried in a foreign land have become more pronounced. By projection into, and engagement with, the peacekeeper’s personal world, the study provides an illuminating account of their lived experiences under COVID-19. It can be useful for different actors engaged in peacekeeping, including commanders, managers and planners.