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As a result of an islamist uprising in Mali in 2011, the international community currently has a heavy military presence in the country. The largest actor is the UN, which deploys more than 10 000 troops within its mission MINUSMA. Despite an eight year-long UN effort, however, the security situation in the region has continuously deteriorated, leading to questions about the mission’s effectiveness. This also leads to questions about the political ambitions of the troop-contributing countries, and whether the operational conditions for MINUSMA-forces in Mali are sufficient enough for mission success. With that in mind, this study is guided by the question of what the actual operational conditions are for the Swedish MINUSMA-force to achieve mission success in relation to the expressed political ambition.

The political ambition is examined by analysing which purposes and objectives for the Swedish participation are expressed in official documents. The operational conditions for the Swedish units are examined by analysing how intra-mission coherence in MINUSMA plays out in practice. This in turn is examined by analysing the degree of fit between Swedish units and the rest of MINUSMA. The analysis shows an overall degree of misfit in the strategic/organisational, cultural/human, as well as operational dimensions. This had major consequences for the intra-mission coherence and the Swedish ability to achieve full operational effect. The conditions for the Swedish forces to achieve mission success in relation to the main expressed political ambition (stability and security in Mali), were therefore highly limited. Given the poor operational conditions for mission success, the result leads to questions about political drivers behind UN mission participation, and whether mission success in the area of operations is a political priority at all.