UN Military Observers (UNMO or MILOBS) and Military Advisors (MILAD) teams excel for their national heterogeneity. All UNMO/MILAD teams had that characteristic. In fact, when the mission HQ department of human resources decides where to post the newcomers, they always look for a “National Balance” among each team. The goal is to avoid repeating the same nation in the same team, trying to have a multicultural environment, which could bring a multitude of different life experiences, and solutions, for the daily problems that the UNMO/MILAD officers have to deal with. The more regions of the world those teams have; the better. Additionally, the constitution of these teams tends to increase the perception of impartiality, because it is much harder to have a “sending Nation” hidden agenda in such multinational groups.
It is not a perfect system but, during my several UN missions I’ve experienced such concept both as a UNMO and as a MILAD, and I recommend it.
Naturally, this was not always possible and the National Balance model also had its flaws; the more countries there was in a team, the less uniformization of military procedures and knowledge the group had, representing an overload of tasks for the better prepared officers. Furthermore, different cultures could provoke erosion in human relations if not managed with caution. National Balance is a very interesting concept, but it requires an extra effort of cultural tolerance from everybody within the team; which shouldn’t be a problem, because “tolerance” is an essential characteristic of an UNMO officer.
However, the concept of National Balance only worked in UNMO/MILAD teams; it does not function properly in larger military contingents, where national homogeneity is an absolute requirement, in order to overtake other problems such as standardization of procedures and equipment, training and education, Command and Control and, obviously, communication restrictions (language).
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