About SWISSINT

Welcome to SWISSINT

Peace support in the international context is one of the three mandates of the Swiss Armed Forces. Currently approximately 300 men and women are serving voluntary in peacekeeping missions abroad and contribute to the continued stability in regions which have been affected by conflict and war. SWISSINT, located in Stans-Oberdorf, is responsible for the implementation of the Swiss Armed Forces peacekeeping mandate.

Mandates

The Swiss Armed Forces «peacekeeping» mandate is one of three tasks established in the military legislation. This mandate is carried out by the Swiss Armed Forces International Command (SWISSINT). The work conducted by SWISSINT is dictated by political guidelines of the Swiss Federal Council and the parliament as well as the guidelines of the Chief of the Swiss Armed Forces.

SWISSINT is the national superior authority of all peace support operations abroad as well as deployed individuals in peace support missions. This includes the recruitment process, human resources, logistics, budgeting and credit management, evaluations and public affairs.

Brochure SWISSINT

Recruitment and human resources
Logistics
Budgeting and credit management
Operational training
National operational command
Evaluation
Public affairs

Code of Conduct

Swiss peacekeepers are often confronted with challenging and stressful situations during a military peace support mission. Peacekeepers are to conduct themselves accordingly, ethically and with a sense of responsibility. As national command, SWISSINT orientates itself on values that are established in the «Code of Conduct». The focus of our daily work are the mandates that we carry out through the military peace support missions.

In order to carry out these mandates our staff are our most valuable assets, regardless if they are operational service members or staff members of SWISSINT. We want to demonstrate our Swiss values domestically as well as abroad – we behave ethically, exemplary, in a solution-orientated manner, communicate transparently and act dependably. In this way, we help to ensure that Switzerland is perceived positive and as a trustworthy nation in military peace support missions.

The SWISSINT Training Centre

The SWISSINT Training Centre is in charge of mission-specific training of Swiss military personnel for voluntary service abroad in peacekeeping operations. To ensure target oriented training, the Training Centre has a staff that is operationally experienced and proficient in several languages. The operation-specific training sequences are checked and evaluated after each course to ensure that theoretical knowledge and practical skills for peacekeeping operations abroad are taught as effectively as possible.

Some courses provide the option to study topics surrounding peace support and are also open to civilians and guests from abroad. Furthermore, a specific security-training course is offered once a year to civilian partners such as international organisations (IOs), governmental organisations (GOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The SWISSINT Training Centre is an accredited «Partnership Training and Education Centre».

Training courses

History

Over 14,000 Swiss nationals have taken part in Swiss Armed Forces peace support missions abroad to date. The first Swiss military peace support mission took place in the year 1953 when the Federal Council deployed 150 armed military service members to Korea. Today five Swiss officers remain at the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) in Panmunjeom in the Korean Military Demarcation Line. In 1988, the Federal Council resolved to expand the peace support missions abroad. The following year, Switzerland deployed the first contingent in a mission of the United Nations. The mission of the SWISSCOY in Kosovo began in 1999 and is the largest Swiss Armed Forces peace support mission to date.

1953

1989

1990

1991

1996

1997

1999

2000

2004

2011

2016

2020

1953

Foundation of the Swiss Armed Forces peacekeeping missions. The Swiss federal government deployed Swiss soldiers to Korea following the armistice agreement.

1989

The first peacekeeping mission under the UN framework. The Swiss Armed Forces deployed a medical unit (SMU) to the UNTAG in Namibia, where the members provided medical assistance for the military and civilian detachments.

1990

Commencement of participation in UN military observer missions. The first Swiss officers travelled to the Middle East to engage for peace as part of the UNTSO.

1991

Second mission of a Swiss medical unit in service of a UN-mission. Up to 85 members of the Swiss Armed Forces were engaged within the peacekeeping mission MINURSO in the Western Sahara.

1996

Following the end of the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Swiss soldiers were engaged in the peace support within the framework of the Swiss Headquarters Support Unit. As the so-called «yellow hats», they provided logistical support in service of the OSCE.

1997

The first Swiss engagement in service of the humanitarian demining took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1999

The beginning of the largest Swiss Armed Force peacekeeping mission to date.Since then, up to 195 armed men and women have been deployed in a wide variety of tasks for the benefit of the Kosovo Force (KFOR).

2000

Swiss military observers first deployed to the south of the Sahara in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the UN. In 2010, the MONUC was renamed to MONUSCO.

2004

With the participation in the EUFOR ALTHEA, Swiss Armed Forces members returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina to serve as an early warning system for the mission.

2004

Expansion of the military peacekeeping engagement in the area of capacity building: Since then, Swiss officers support training centres such as the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Ghana.

2011

Swiss small arms and ammunition experts support the Bosnian-Herzegovinian armed forces in knowledge and capacity building in the field of weapons and ammunition as a part of the Mobile Training Teams (MTT) of the EUFOR.

2011

The first Swiss Armed Forces members deployed to the United Nations Office for Projects and Services (UNOPS) at the UN Headquarters in New York.

2016

The Swiss Armed Forces further strengthened its engagement in the area of capacity building with the participation in the United Nations Triangular Partnership Project (UNTPP). The goal of the project is to improve the engineering skills for UN-missions in Africa.

2020

Swiss Armed Forces members operate in the UN based in Geneva for the first time. Serving in the function of informatics specialists, they are responsible for the implementation of a global information management system for the UN demining service.