Canada's centre of excellence for peace support operations training.(From the Peace Support Training Centre)

Canadian soldiers can look at our reputation within the United Nations and feel proud of our peacekeeping accomplishments. Our experience in the peacekeeping arena has earned us a reputation for professionalism that has led to calls from other nations to assist them in their peacekeeping training. Indeed, some even go so far as to say that Canada "wrote the book" on how to conduct a peacekeeping operation.

The conduct of our own training for these operations has been a different story. Prior to 1996, peacekeeping training within the Canadian Forces was sporadic. Training standards and focus varied from brigade to brigade and unit to unit. Furthermore, any personnel who were individually tasked to go overseas deployed without the benefit of any pre-deployment training whatsoever. What was needed was a method to consolidate this knowledge and establish a national standard for all pre-deployment training. Thus the Peace Support Training Centre (PSTC) was born.

THE BEGINNING

Activated in July 1996 at Canadian Forces Base Kingston, the PSTC provides operational training for Canadian Forces and other personnel prior to deployment on peace support operations. The mission is to provide a nucleus of …