The Challenges Project and the Challenges Project Concluding Report is the product of a truly multinational and joint effort.

Participants from some 50 countries and 230 organizations, civilian, police and military, have contributed to the project effort over the past five years bringing their experience, insights and resources to join in our common pursuit of a more peaceful world.

Whether acting locally, nationally, regionally or globally, all efforts have been crucial to the overall project effort.

Nine international seminars have been held on five continents by the Challenges Project Partner Organizations.

These include the Swedish National Defence College, Project Coordinator, the Russian Public Policy Centre, Jordan Institute of Diplomacy, Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, United States Army Peace Keeping Institute, United Service Institution of India, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Pearson Peace Keeping Centre of Canada, Argentine Armed Forces Joint Staff, and the Australian Defence Force.

The project encourages bilateral and multilateral exchanges to take place between influential organizations and individuals that normally do not interact on a regular basis.

Since the seminar series started there have been several spinn-offs or exchanges agreed between both governments, peacekeeping centres and think tanks. For more information, see Products & Endstate

The project presents a Concluding Report to the United Nations and its Member States in April 2002. The primary target audience for the reports is the Member States.

The report identifies current challenges related to peace operation and recommends ways in which these could possibly be overcome, suggesting them to be implemented at international, regional, national and local levels.

The Concluding Report has been written by a group of authors representing a wide geographical, disciplinary, religious, and cultural spectra.

It is in the hope of the participants of the project that the Concluding Report will make a useful and important contribution to the debate on the current challenges of multinational and multidimensional peace operations.

Following translation of the Concluding Report Executive Summary by the Partner Organizations into the official languages of the United Nations (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish), these will be available on April 25 2002, in order to increase the pool of peace operations literature available in languages other than English.

The project combines issues of the theory and practice of peace operations with practical problems and possibilities of education and training. The seminar programmes have included visits to national peace operations training and education academies and peace operations organizations. To date, visits have been organized to: Swedish Armed Forces International Command (SWEDINT)

• Vystrel Peacekeeping Academy of the Russian Federation

• Zarqa Peace Keeping Training Centre of Jordan

• Royal Police Academy of Jordan

• South Africa Army College

• United States Army Peace Keeping Institute

• Pearson Peacekeeping Centre

• CAECOPAZ-Argentine Armed Forces Peacekeeping Training Centre

• CENCAMEX-CIVPOL Training Centre for Foreign Missions of Argentina