Viking – for cooperation in international peace operations

Participants in the Viking exercise are having a meeting.

Viking is one of the world’s largest international staff exercises, jointly planned and carried out by staff from the UN, EU, civilian authorities, police, military and representatives from humanitarian organizations. The aim is to train participants to meet the challenges of current and future multinational peace and crisis management operations by practicing cooperation in a fictional, war-torn country.

The exercise has been arranged regularly every few years since 1999. The last Viking exercise took place in 16 to 26 April 2018. It gathered some 2,500 participants from around 60 countries. There were four sites to practice in Sweden. Brazil, Bulgaria, Finland, Ireland and Serbia also took part in the training and hosted one site each.

Many different actors are active in international peace and crisis management operations. Intergovernmental organizations usually deploy field staff. Civil society organizations and humanitarian organizations second staff, as well as the Armed Forces and the Police. Viking provides an opportunity to familiarize with the complex and risky work before undertaking it.

Since 2003 FBA is in charge of planning and coordinating the how the exercise evolves civilian parts of the training whereas the Swedish Police, the Swedish Armed Forces and the Swedish Defence University are responsible for the other parts.

The training builds on current challenges in real international operations and its content has been adapted accordingly over the years. For the 2018 edition of Viking, FBA identified three areas of focus for the civilian part of the training; leadership in international operations, protection of civilians and the inclusion of women in efforts to promote peace and security.

Frequently asked questions

Research has to reach out with results that can be put into action

After 20 years with the women, peace and security agenda we are still far from the goals where women’s participation in peace processes is a key issue. The UN Secretary General has called on international actors to look into their ways of working. To what extent can research help us develop the work for peace and security to become more efficient?

2020-12-18 11:47

On international deployment

Kristian Edqvist

Training manager in Brussels

Catalina Perdomo Rodriguez

Adviser to the UN in Colombia

Johan Chytraeus

Monitoring officer in Ukraine

Karolina Riedel

Statistician in election observation missions

Johan Fredborn Larsson

Political adviser in Mali

Vanda Dahlbom

Analyst in Iraq

Björn Tedeman

Election observer

Read our publications

Youth, Peace and Security Adviser’s Handbook

Never before in history have there been so many young people on the planet. A very important cornerstone for reaching sustainable peace and security is to ensure that young people have the rights, tools and opportunities, to participate in a meaningful manner in statebuilding and peacebuilding processes.

Documents

Youth, peace and security adviser’s handbook

More Publications

THE FBA BLOG

>

Posted by Hanna Bertelman
Creating space for dialogue in Colombia

>

In Colombia, four years after the signing of the historic peace agreement between the government and the FARC guerrilla, local civil society actors are a pivotal force for promoting change. The FBA, together with CIASE, a network of women´s organizations, and the Colombian National Police is enabling a space for joint learning for civil society actors and police officers on human security, leadership, and dialogue and mediation.

As most of those who have seen a peace process ... Read entire post »
2020-12-16 12:44
>

Posted by Annika Folkeson
Avenues for accountability and participation: harnessing the power of the streets

>

While much of the world awaits the upcoming US presidential elections in November, Iraq remains ensnared in its own deliberations over elections. Following the protests that escalated significantly in October 2019, the government resigned and early elections are now set for June 2021.

The lack of jobs and public services, as well as rampant corruption, are among the grievances that have set off demonstrations across much of southern and central Iraq, as well as parts of Kurdistan ... Read entire post »
2020-10-22 12:19
>

Posted by Minna Naucler
‘Defund the police’ and reforming the security sector

>

In the midst of the pandemic, riots and unrest continues in the US over the recent cases of police brutality that resulted in the deaths of several African American individuals. While the Black Lives Matter movement continues to draw attention to the structural racism and inequalities of the American society, one of the slogans of the movement is ‘defund the police’ – seemingly meaning to disband or even abolish the police and give their funding to… ... Read entire post »
2020-09-30 12:26