Cheryl Pearce - Cyprus veteran

A beginning

I grew up in a small country town in South Australia, a place called Loxton, in a group of towns, Riverland, it's up on the eastern side of the state, up on the River Murray. So I went through my schooling and I, like any country town, played a myriad of different sports, summer and winter, and was actively involved in the community.

My interest in the military actually wasn't about the military in itself, if it was about being part of something larger than myself and belonging and serving. I was looking at the police force, and I was looking at the military. And I was in Adelaide, doing recruitment with work experience with the police. And I went into recruitment for defence.

Back then, we didn't have internet, how you actually search was difficult. And I actually just went in and there was no one in the line for army because there's people at the air force table and the navy table. And I asked, "What's army about?" And they gave me a bit of an understanding, and they said, "Well, what do you want to do?" And I said, "Well, what have you got?" And they said, "Well, you can be an officer or a general entry." And I said, "Well, explain both of those to me." And they said to me, "Well, what education have you got?" And I said, "I'm currently doing my year 12."

And they said, "Why don't you go to be an officer?" I said, "Okay, what is that?" Explained it to bit more. And then I went through the selection process, and somehow convinced to him that I was the right person for the job. But I certainly saw my little card and I was an average. I was a C, but we didn't know that at the time.

So I joined as an 18-year-old. Probably one of the youngest for the first integrated training at Portsea. Officer Cadet School, Portsea, 1985. It was the first year of integrated training and the last course for Portsea before it folded and RMC in ADFA commenced in 1986. So it was a 12-month integrated course.

Internal drive and determination

Not coming from a military background, I didn't really know what to expect. And probably as a robust country 18-year-old, I was able to follow orders. It was very overwhelming. I was also physically robust, and so I didn't pick up injuries and I was able to achieve the physical training tests, and able to keep up endurance wise, but it was very different. We were meant to be everything had to be exactly the same, that they went out of the way to treat us differently to be the same. There was a lot of the staff...

Outside of the commandant and the RSM, no one actually believed in the integrated training. All the staff, or it was perceived by us as the cadets, that we weren't equal. We were at the bottom of the totem pole, and that we had to prove ourselves every day. And our male peers got a lot of pressure also from staff, about making sure that we were their weakest link, and it was up to them to remove us. And so there was a lot of bullying, a lot of belittling. It was a difficult year.

I sort of had my own way of managing, which was if I couldn't grasp the bigger picture, I'd break it down into bite-sized pieces and just get through the next day, and the next day, and the next day. And so for me, it was just keep going. And then it sort of tipped. And it was about probably a third of the way in was just that I wanted to succeed.

I had this internal drive and determination that just drove me to go, yes, I want to graduate. I want to be part of the Australian Army, and I'm going to prove you wrong, that I can get there, and I can do it. But it is a difficult year. And I've got some wonderful female friends that have come through that course, all different experiences that they've had. And a lot of it was to do with your own seniors that you had, and what their beliefs were about gender and females at Portsea. Some had really horrific... And some left at six months.

Resolve to succeed

We had physical training tests that if you didn't pass, you didn't get a leave pass. And we had a couple of females who couldn't do heaves, and struggled to do just dead heaves, and left after really never having left the base.

And so there was this perception that we were going to weaken the whole course, and that we weren't going to be able to succeed. And for us, it was just individually and collectively to have that lead of determination, to get through and pave the way for the next group, and the next group.

Could be my naivety or my own grit determination, but it really gave me the resolve to wanting to continue to serve. And probably, the next decade really was about doing things in spite of. I will succeed in spite of the way that I was treated, and I will never treat someone like the way I was treated.

Gender and a broadening outlook

It was 1985, females then, when we graduated, I had to go back to wearing the female uniform. We'd done all our training and everything in greens and the polys. And then we had to hand all that back and go into the light green, dark green uniform. And it was then only in 1992, where we were able to go into operational units, '91, into operational units. Where before that, was only home only. We weren't allowed to deploy. We could only go to units that were in the domestic environment. And so I went to military police. For me, we weren't allowed to go to combat arms. And military police for me was the closest thing that I could get to that. Plus, you got the opportunity to command at every level. So it was a good choice for me, and I never had any regrets in the corps I went to. And then in '92, they first opened up operational units for females to go into. You couldn't go into combat units, but you could serve within the brigade in either logistics units or the headquarters. And we were cited in pairs. They were never going to allow females to go in as singles. We were cited in pairs as I'd call it. So had a dear friend, and she's like my best friend now, who we served together in Headquarters 1 Brigade, when it was at Holsworthy in 1992 and '93. And really, were able to then evaluate and influence that environment from a gender perspective, but also to be part of a bigger team, an operational team. And really broaden my own understanding about what the Australian Army was, and where we're heading as an organization.

A bridge too far

Portsea, we had two females right to the last week were going to fail their course if they couldn't do a traverse rope, and that is going up the rope and across the rope. So they didn't have the upper-body strength to get themselves from the vertical to the horizontal. And if you thought about that now, would we ever failed someone nearly after 12 months of training because they could not physically get themselves from a vertical to horizontal? And you look back, and you sort of... How we found reasons to opt out. How we found reasons to ensure people didn't succeed, versus the other way around. Is how do we create an environment for them to exceed?

And I take that through my junior years, was everything was how could we find ways to fail you versus enable you? And really, as I look back in that first decade, it was really tough. It was about trying to fit in, trying to hold onto your femininity, but not lose it, but allow then to just fit within the team. And we didn't used to have leadership training when we went through. You learned by you'd have commanding officer hours. You'd have conversations around it, but it was about what you saw. It wasn't a theoretical approach to leadership.

I spent a lot of time trying to be more, what I'd call back then, an alpha male leadership. Very stoic, very authoritarian style of leadership. And it wasn't naturally my way. I could switch to that, but my style was quite different. So I spent that first decade trying to find mentors or people that I could be more like, and that was that alpha male. Because it didn't naturally sit... I didn't naturally fit that sort of personality style or that leadership style. And I sort of think about it now and I reflect back, and if there's one thing I wish I did do was really embrace that diversity, embrace my differences, but the environment didn't set it up for that. We do now. We're very much about an inclusive and diverse work environment in most places.

I would still say there are pockets where you need to fit in or the perception is you need to fit in. And for me it was a really thinking, I wish I had a voice. If I told my younger self in that first decade, I wish I had a voice and was comfortable to put my head above the parapet to give my position and my thoughts. But at that time, that was a bridge too far for me. I just wanted to be part of a team. And wasn't really prepared to put myself out on the ledge at that point in time.

Graduation

We had 20 women and we graduated with 11, I think was in the end. Just over 50%. Some, they were voluntary that they left, and others were medical. And some left, they didn't pass. They were actually removed by the officer cadet school, by the hierarchy. They didn't meet the requirements of either the field element or the academic element.

So it was through three different reasons that they departed. Those that remained, we've got a strong cohort and a strong group of friends all the way through. Some left at different periods. Some had real difficulty once they had left. But I remain in contact with a number of them now. And we have such a shared experience, but also, a real connection just in our normal lives now.

Force Commander, Cyprus

Force commander in Cyprus. Look, it occurred in 2018. I was a commandant at the Australian Defence Force Academy at the time. And doing a quick scan through my career prior to that, I had a lot of the prerequisites that were required, which was that I had served in the UN before, which was in East Timor in 2002.

I had commanded overseas in Afghanistan. I was currently an appointment of a one-star command position, which was ADFA. I had done higher Defence College, and I'd commanded a unit, which was the Military Police Battalion. So I had all the prerequisites that was required. And they were looking for a major general, I didn't yet have that... I didn't meet that pre-req. But I was very fortunate that the organisation, that Defence knew of my background. And they did a selection and it was put up to the chief of the defence force at the time, as being Australia's nomination for the position. And then, that was in probably June of 2018.

And then did a normal application or was nominated. I had to do a full history and an application. And then when I went through the process of being shortlisted. And then I had to do a full interview with panel with the UN. And the selection only came through in November, in mid-November.

I was actually in Hawaii after just finishing the New York Marathon. I was on the way back and got the heads up by the chief of Defence Force that I was a successful candidate. And realizing, looking back, it's been a lot more about both myself for my strengths, and I won the position, but it's also very political. It's about Australia winning the position as well. So it's about member states with the UN and the balance across nations.

There's also a desire to have more females within the UN. And so that was, in some ways, a positive discrimination for me. I was definitely the best on merit, but that being a female was also an advantage both for Australia and for the UN, to be able to serve in Cyprus and with the UN more broadly.

Learning on the run

Normally, you would go through New York on your way in, and have all the induction. You have a week of induction. And then a week of induction to the UN, then a week of induction to force commander. But due to the delay in the process was that I needed to go straight to Cyprus. So I knew what the mandate was. I had done a lot of preparation for the interview, and so I'd done a lot of work up about what Cyprus was, what the political situation, the environment, the UN contribution and a bit more of the history. So I had done my own research for it.

I landed into Cyprus on the 5th of January, 2019. And literally, was within the first week, the acting SRSG, and head of mission as well, because they needed to leave to go to UN, to renew the mandate, which for Cyprus, the United Nations Security Council mandate for Cyprus was to prevent a recurrence of fighting, to maintain law and order, and to return the country to normal conditions. And the key part for me was prevent a recurrence of fighting.

Understanding the culture of the UN and understanding how the UN worked as an entity, and then how it worked with civil society, with the political environment within Cyprus, and operated with the two opposing forces was something I learned on the run. It was a very much learn by doing. And there was a lot of my background that really assisted me in setting myself up for success.

But equally, the cultural changes in working with the UN was quite stark, that I hadn't realised when I was as a more junior officer with the UN in East Timor. So the differences in that. But leading a multinational force had many similarities, but it was quite nuanced because of the number of nations that contributed to that mission.

A multi-national contribution

We had three key contingents, which were from South America. We had Argentinian, Chilean, Brazilian, and Paraguay was a contingent. They had a coalition of nations for that. And the UK, and then Slovakia was my other key contributing nation. So very diverse in their thinking, culture, and background. And then on top of that, we had quite a strong Eastern European presence. I had Russians, Hungarians, Serbians, Ukraine. I had a number of nations. Then we had a couple from Africa. And so that was a military…And then the policing contingent, CIVPOL also had... They then, on top of that, had China, Poland. So it was a very much multinational contribution.

For a small force, I had just over 800, but the whole mission was only just over 1,000. And that was from the earlier... When the mission first commenced in 1964 there was over 6,000 troops alone, right across the island. And by the time I took up my position from 1974, we were contained into a buffer zone, which was 180 kilometres from west to east.

Ranging from four metres in some parts in downtown Nicosia, out to seven kilometres near the airport, which was heavily militarized both north and south by Turkish forces, and the Cypriot National Guard, all conscripts. Thousands along the northern and southern cease fire line, which we then went from 6,000 down to just over 800, patrolling inside the buffer zone. So a big change, but with the same mandate, to prevent a recurrence of fighting for my part.

Nothing but respect

I have never felt more equal and more comfortable in my gender in those environments. I had nothing but respect from all the nations. And it really was a non-issue from a gender perspective. Probably, what I found more was because I was only the second ever female force commander, the UN tended to roll me out in more of a gender perspective. Like in Australia, it would be about more trying to fit in and not playing up the gender perspective. In the UN, they were so proud about having senior female leadership that I was used often in a WPS agenda. I would travel to speak on it. I was able to be talking about what female peacekeepers bring to a mission.

And when you think about it as helping civil society, supporting protection of civilians, and being part of the community and returning a country to peace and security, and the stability within a country, you need to have women as part of the dialogue and as part of the narrative. You can't achieve that through men alone. But if the peacekeeping force doesn't represent the community by which they're serving, and the country by which they're supporting, you're unable to achieve the mandate to the best of your ability. So it was really about the promotion of additional females. But for me, the term that they use when they communicate with me, I'm either the force commander or the general. It was not a ma'am. It was not gendered. It was just my role.

They respected me for the job that I was selected to do. And gender from a leadership didn't even and come into it. So it really was not an issue. And it just enabled me then to really create that inclusive and diverse work environment. You've got, whether it be whatever country that is contributing, you had the ability to respect the culture, the background, the gender, education training, and you are able to really harness using the values-based approach to get them to use their voice, and to be able to...

They had good ideas. And it might not have been as quick as we would expect in Australia, but we didn't have a learned base by which to work from. So we came on a professional development journey together. And then we're able to work with each of the contingents to be able to achieve their best. And if you start with the premise that everyone is trying their best, and they're all trying to improve and work, you start to be able to pull together, through good leadership, excellent teams, empower those that are on the ground to be able to achieve the outcomes you're seeking.

Finding the balance

We ran 24/7 operations. Of my 800, we'd be do in the patrolling... We had a patrolling program. We didn't have sufficient to be static. We'd have observation posts, but we'd be a lot of moving by either foot or vehicle. And we'd concentrate in particular hotspots and areas that were of concern, and the tensions that were there. But I'd have briefings.

First up in the morning, I'd have an ops briefing, which when you talk about a multinational force, it is always interesting. And of the 14, probably only about six had English as their first language, everyone else was second. So you're trying to communicate in a way that... And Cyprus is an English-speaking mission. So it's always, I have it with a smile about language and how important it is. And our vernacular, as Australians, and me really having to simplify some of the sayings we have down to just communicating clearly, and concisely, and really understanding the strength of SOPs, or the standard-operating procedures, so we could actually conduct ops.

And so we would have an update every morning. And I would be either working as part of the senior management group as part of a whole of mission approach, trying to support the SRSG in achieving the political outcome. I had a really robust engagement program with the Turkish forces commander or the Greek Cypriot National Guard commander. And I'd be out on the road a lot, engaging with the troops on the ground, engaging with my commands. I also had an aviation capability, a military police capability, engineer capability, and a force reserve.

So it was generally engaging in an operational sense, but then very quickly could work strategically and politically with the whole of the mission. And with civil society, I'd often go out in doing engagements with civil society. We'd have issues about pilgrimages, religious pieces. Working with the diplomatic community because they were there to try and support the Republic of Cyprus and the leadership in the North to find a political solution and a way forward. So it was a lot of engagement that occurred.

I would spend most of the day operationally focused with some political. And then afternoon and evening would be political and diplomatic. So it was a very political mission. But to keep the calm stability to be able to achieve that political outcome was really difficult. It was a legacy mission. Both sides knew where the seams were with the UN, how to try and gain traction. So what they were saying politically did not often resonate with what we saw on the ground. And it was really strategically working through the engagement program with the two opposing forces to try and deescalate, deescalate, deescalate, because we were unarmed.

Our mandate was an armed force, but in the '90s they had elected to go unarmed, and so our weapons were in the armoury. And I could have escalated if that was my call and I could have re-armed, but politically, there was no appetite to do so. So it was how to find the balance between the protection of your force and supporting the political outcomes. And that was something that was always in the back of my mind.

Because when you're patrolling, and if you've got two opposing forces on the ground, and you've got conscripts at 18, 19 from both countries, and you're walking around or in a vehicle patrolling, especially by night, and you hear a weapon cock, and you're unarmed and we're not wearing helmet and vest, you are literally... You got the blue beret. What I'm asking my soldiers to do was high risk. So it was low threat, but there was certainly a high risk. And so it was trying to find that sweet spot in achieving the presence, and achieving the engagement, but not to the detriment of the safety of the troops. And holding and trying to deescalate the tensions at all levels.

In the buffer zone

We worked in the buffer zone. So our headquarters is in the buffer zone, in the protected area where the Nicosia airport was, or before it, was caught in the crossfire in 1974. And so we lived and breathed it every day. I was out in the buffer zone all the time. But the buffer zone is not like... You'd think the DMZ in Korea between North and South. It would be wonderful if it was free of everything, it was just hours to patrol.

But over time, in the trying to get to return to normal conditions, they had encouraged farming. And if you had owned property in the buffer zone pre-conflict and could prove it to the UN, you could go back and farm again. But then there was a lot of tensions between the farmers and the military, because the farmers would farm areas that were not theirs, and they would push right up to the northern ceasefire line.

And then they had the Turkish forces pushing back. And we had this guidance that they were not to farm within the 200 meters of the south of the northern ceasefire line. You can't enforce that. Politically, there was no appetite to enforce it. And so they would creep really closely because there was financial gain for the Greek Cypriot farmers to take as much land as they could. And land was really important for sides. Turf was their number one priority. And then you would have unauthorised constructions.

Then you would have military move forwards, which were violations. And then you had... They weren't to do any constructions on their observation posts, but that always occurred as well, because this is a legacy mission. If you made an observation post with a tower and it was all sandbagged, you could do like for like. But a position that you made in 1974 is not going to be stable now. So it's how do you replace like for like without doing upgrades? And as the tensions rose between the sides, the fortifications that both sides did were significant.

You can report the violation, but then how do you deescalate it? And that's a political... So it's a really work to, yes, we'll report violations. Yes, we're in the ground all the time. Yes, I'm doing the engagement with the opposing forces. But unless there's a political will to want to find a way forward, it's very difficult to deescalate the military component of it, of both sides. Because for the Turkish forces, we had one element that worked back to Ankara, the Turkish mainland army, who came in and depending on the narrative from which side, if you ask the Turkish forces, they conducted an intervention. But if you ask the Cypriot forces, they invaded.

So the narrative that both sides have of the same currents, the same conflict is very different. And so you'll never be able to find that commonality in a narrative of a way forward. So it's how do the two leaders politically in the North and the South find a political solution, and how do we continue to deescalate? So when I left in the beginning of 2021, the tensions were high. You've got a regional security issue.

The tensions in the region between Turkey and Greece... Turkey and Libya had an MOU, but then you had Greece, Israel, and Egypt. And then you had the EU, who was concerned. You had the UK, who was guarantor nation, also had their sovereign bases in Cyprus, was very much actively involved as well. And then the EU and Turkey. So the regional security was quite fragile. So that what you're trying to do is then trying to hold stability in Cyprus.

Knowing what's happening in the region, you're trying to keep the common stability in Cyprus. And then what is an acceptable level of tension, and then how do you find... It's very complex. How do you then find a way to just hold that and work with both sides, not to escalate it into conflict on the ground?

And so, yeah, it's trying to find, again, that sweet spot of supporting SRSG, the Special Representative, as they were working with both political elements, to find a way to speak, to talk. They wouldn't even communicate with each other. To then be able to, militarily, and then the police, try to deescalate it enough to allow success in that. But in deescalating, it doesn't mean doing nothing, because both sides will take advantage of that.

So it's how do you stop them from doing any move forwards, or any growth of infrastructure or people? But then, to try to keep that as calm as you can. And they always try to look for different ways to find a way forward, whether they'd get agreements for both sides to talk, but it was really politically difficult.

A complex interpretation

The assessment was it was really the hardening of the northern and southern ceasefire line. These were lines that where, in 1974, the ceasefire was called, where the Turkish forces stopped and the Greek Cypriot National Guard stopped. And so it wasn't a clear position across the country. It was done with the good old chinagraph green pencil on a talc. And then in the clarity now you've got GPS, you've got a difference of 100 metres. And in a city, 100 meters or 50 meters is quite large.

So how do you get the clarity of exactly where the line is? So it's not called a ceasefire line, because it's not agreed to by both sides. It's a delineation of what the UN called it. And is our interpretation of it at the time, and their respect to us to hold that separation. But it's difficult. It was more complex than anything I had done in Afghanistan or East Timor, because it was so politically charged and such had such a rich history around it that it wasn't black and white. It was very much in the shades of how do you interpret it? How do you find the way forward and work around small pieces of ground, that meant so much to both sides?

A tense stand off

A high-tension situation is the Commonwealth war graves. There's a Commonwealth war graves in Cyprus, actually is inside the buffer zone. The Turkish forces and the leadership in the North believe it is part of the North. And they say that to deescalate, they'll give the UN the permission to use it. The UN's position, it's in the buffer zone, and it belongs for us to monitor, observe, and to keep an eye on it until the settlement occurs, and then it'll be decided.

So it's actually saying it doesn't belong to us, but it doesn't belong to either side, and it's our responsibility to look after until that settlement. So what had happened over time, when the talks are going well, there's a better chance of finding a way forward. When the peace talks are in hiatus or it's very-high tensions, we run into issues of where suddenly go, "Nope, you can't go into the cemetery." And part of our ONEs (?) is we need to have a presence, either observation or by patrolling.

To do a patrol within the Commonwealth war cemetery was really significant because we were unarmed. And they would claim it's theirs, and then they would move forward. And the move forward was then a violation, which would then create a response from the South, because they had eyes on. So it's how do you stop them doing a move forward? They wouldn't let the gardeners in. Because the gardeners used be independent of both the North and the South. And so we are trying to...

Even the Brits were trying to facilitate through the Commonwealth war graves, was to hire a gardener. So something as simple as this became a real tension and a real issue. And in the end, we went in with five peacekeepers, with whipper-snippers, and shovels, and we did the gardening. Now, this was a three or four day planned activity. This wasn't just, hey, the night before, let's go in and do this.

This was a significant amount of planning because they had forced protection out of right from any escalation. The Turkish forces over-responded, and they turned up with a platoon in full combat gear and surrounded the Commonwealth war cemetery in full combat gear, and weapons at the ready on five peacekeepers with whipper-snipers. So trying to deescalate that, to get onto then the phone to the Turkish forces commander, we had video going of it.

That's the only way we could actually deescalate it, from it. And we had the force protection team ready to move. It was just the wait out. Wait out of who was going to actually move first to... And we held, and we held, and we held. And they then pulled back and were able to capture that. But the simpleness of that, but the complexity of that, and what that there and meant politically, because that then was escalated right up, and was used as nearly a propaganda to say about disparaging remark.

We're not trying to get to a peace process. We're not aiming to go forward. Look what they're doing. They're moving forward in, they're threatening the UN, et cetera, et cetera. So each side provides political mileage out of these incidents. We could not have allowed the Turkish forces to own that piece. So the complexity of that is really, it's minor in some ways, if you take Afghanistan, the planning I was doing in Afghanistan, but the political strategic implications of something that simple in Cyprus was significant.

A simplistic lifestyle

It was a really, I would say, quite a simple lifestyle. We lived in Nicosia. The UN, we had some soldiers who... All the forces lived in camps, and so their life was quite austere, and it wasn't luxurious by any standards. But when you talk other peacekeeping missions in Africa, it was considered to be a good mission to be on. I could move freely around. My driver's also close-protection qualified, so I was very much... Everything I did I was supported through it.

My partner, Paul, he came with me for the first year, and then got stuck in Australia when COVID hit, so wasn't with me for the second year. But we could move freely. So I did a lot of diplomatic activity by evening, as part of the political process. And weekends were kept quite simple, but we could move around the island pre-COVID freely. I could move into the North. I had passes to move over there. I was recognised. I was monitored. I was very cautious in moving, but I could be over there in personal.

But exotic, look, Cyprus is an island that's been loved to death. And for me, who's a summer person, I loved being there. And it was a great historical island to visit, to get to understand and to be part of. So yeah, it was a really good opportunity to be part of a mission that had the ability to be able to balance the on and off of work. But you're never actually off. Always had the phone. I was always available and always responsive.

COVID implications

COVID was very different. When COVID hit, we had a lot of lockdown. There wasn't any diplomatic activity for the year. We were trying to do that remotely. Really difficult to work with the troops, the North. It was an external disruptor. It could have been a really good way to bring the North and the South together, but it wasn't. They shut all the crossing points. It became very tense, very difficult. I lost control of my forces in the North. I had three camps in the North. We couldn't move freely to get to them.

They couldn't come south. So that was a really difficult period of negotiation. Trying to keep COVID out of the camps and allow us to conduct our operations was quite a lot of work with my commanders on how to build teams within teams, and a business continuity plan to work that forward. I was well served. I had a small Australian personal staff, and they were essential for my sanity, and for also the operational plan as we went through, because it was really difficult to operate in those conditions. So it was quite stark of the both years.

We couldn't travel, couldn't move, do anything in 2020, yeah, which was really exhausting for me because you're just never off. It was constant. There wasn't a downtime through that period. And so I reflect back on that, and when I think about the countries that were serving there, and they were so far away from their homes and their families and their safety, it was a difficult period.

A culmination of learning

Everything I did in my journey through my career best prepared me for Cyprus. So Timor gave me the initial understanding of the UN and understanding of how they operate. I was junior enough that I didn't get caught up in a lot of the process part of it but had the opportunity about what the contribution you provided to a member state, and how you work with the communities, and work politically to operate and to achieve success.

Taking to Afghanistan, everything in my career had prepared me to command in Afghanistan. All my education, all my training, all my experiences. And I thoroughly enjoyed that opportunity. It was challenging. I was well-served. I had a lot of support. I had excellent staff, and we worked really, really well. There was established procedures. I was then able to step up across... Got rid of all the white noise. I was purely focused on the mission.

Working to CJOPS, was able to achieve Australia's intent, both militarily and supporting our ambassador over there from a security perspective to achieve Australia's diplomatic and Australia's outcome for that. But working at a coalition level with 23 different countries as part of Resolute Support really enabled me to understand that operational strategic political position, by which I only had a small sort of opportunity in my appointments in Australia to do.

I really thoroughly enjoyed and actually worked out how you work collaboratively to achieve effects both national and global, and those relationships, and establishing relationships for that. But also, understanding everybody's individual contribution, and the single sense of that unity of purpose and effort. And understand everybody's individual value add to the organisation, and to how they bring it all together. Whether it's a Train Advise Assist, a coalition support, or my own staff, and how we worked as Team Australia in that environment.

That experience then enabled me to work in what I would call a multinational, multidimensional mission, that was really complex politically, strategically, and militarily, in a very different way, and nuanced globally by UN member state interest in the mission, in the region. And being able to build on what had been achieved before me in Cyprus, and then to evaluate on again. And to have the stewardship to take it forward.

It wasn't going to be achieve success on mine. As much as every force commander goes, "I'll be able to fix it," it's not. It's about the stewardship going forward. And to try and develop and achieve a political solution through peacekeeping. So yes, it really was. Each and every one I learnt a lot from, which then had the culmination for me as the force commander, which I would not have thought that it would've been more challenging than Afghanistan, but it was, in a completely different way.

Painting a picture and pride in service

It's not a given that everyone can speak in English. And we have a lot of cultural norms in Australia. And it's the little incidental pieces, like I talked about in Cyprus about language. Only six were speaking English. And one morning I was really trying to, I'm a visual person, visualise what had occurred between incursions with the Turkish forces and the Greek National Guard overnight.

And I had my Turkish forces LO, who was Slovakian try and to explain to me, and I couldn't get it. And I said, "Hey, could you just paint me a picture, and come back to me outside so I can get a better understanding?" And I left it at that and came away. And I was in my office and I heard him come up in very, very frustrated, and emotionally to my MA, and he went, "I do not paint. I don't know how to paint. What does she want me to paint? What does she want me to say?" And that was just a small snippet of all the language issues you're trying to work together, and cultural differences.

But really, when you put it all together, everybody is trying to achieve the same outcome. It might not be a perfect solution. It might only be 70, 80%, but everyone was trying their best, and everyone was giving it a shot. And I couldn't have been more proud of this, really, collection of nations who came together with a single purpose, a single drive and passion to achieve and help the community of Cyprus to achieve a better outcome.

So, yeah, that would be probably my final points on that. And just, how proud I was as the force commander to lead them, but to be part of them, and to serve under the UN flag.

A reflection on Afghanistan

Earlier this year, I found it initially difficult. And I just had a thought about it. And I actually was just like, "No, we made a difference. We did our best." And I felt really saddened in some ways for the Afghan security and national forces who, really, who gave it their all. And the ultimate sacrifice by so many that we assisted and trained for the time in the Train Advise Assist when I was there.

And for me, from a gender perspective, for the women that truly believed in their nation, about what it could be, I was quite humbled by what they were trying to achieve. And then saddened that they weren't able, at this time, to be able to realize that. But as Australians, my assessment is that each and every one who served did their best, and we did make a difference.