Inside UNIFIL's headquarters in Lebanon

Purpose - The aim of the chapter is to analyze the multinational collaboration between troops-contributing countries, and between military and civilian personnel at UNIFIL's headquarters in South-Lebanon. Methodology/approach - The methodological approach consisted of semi-structured interviews and participatory observation. Findings - The multinational collaboration at the HQ was satisfactory, although not optimal as mutual stereotyping continued to exist. Western military personnel still prefers to operate in a NATO framework and resent some of the civil servants' privileges. This hampers a smooth civil- military cooperation to some extent. Originality/value of the paper - Few qualitative studies have looked at how participating nations collaborate at missions' headquarters. This study provides a look inside the daily work of military and civilian personnel at the operational level and, consequently, offers insights for improving multinational collaboration in future (peace) operations.