21st century soldiering is a complicated business.

Military men used to fight wars but the new role of peacekeeper requires many more skills and subtleties.

The British Army's original mission was to protect convoys of humanitarian aid but five years on and the game plan has changed.

During one week in Bosnia I saw servicemen and women in roles as diverse as magazine editors, diplomats, social workers, radio and club DJs, sports coaches, enterprise grant facilitators, market researchers, tour operators, builders, detectives - the list is almost endless.

From looking for land mines to designing children's colouring books - the professionalism of the British Army knows no bounds.

I was impressed but they were rather keen to discredit any ideas that they were somehow "going soft."

On numerous occasions I was reminded of their enhanced capability role - the ability to mobilise troop-laden Warriors and Challenger tanks to give any miscreants "a bloody nose."

Lancaster's Major Andrew Dennis was acting Commanding Officer during my stay with the King Own Royal Border Regiment (KORBR) and he explained the British Army's role in SFOR - the international stabilisation force.

"We are here to provide a safe and secure environment so that the country can develop its political and civic bodies so that we don't have to be here any more."

He admitted that the simple mission statement was "a tricky business."

"It's a complex situation and there are no simple answers. The British Army is innately flexible and we're trained to be effective in the most difficult of circumstances. We have the ability to develop many different skills but we never forget that, first and foremost, we are here as an army."

The 1995 Dayton peace agreement ended the fighting and divided Bosnia roughly equally between the Muslim/Croat Federation and the Bosnian-Serb Republic of Srpska.

The KORBR's job is to monitor the situation in Srpska, a mountainous, largely rural area with a large capital city, Banja Luka.

It's was a multi-ethnic area which saw plenty of frontline action during the war but these days it's one of the quieter regions with an ethnic mix of 95 per cent Serbs and small clusters of Bosniacs (Bosnian Muslims)

The KORBR's main day-to-day activities include keeping a watchful eye on the Serb armed forces, assisting aid agencies and monitoring the return of refugees.

But, as one of the King's Own sergeant explained: "Everything in Bosnia is as clear as mud."

For example, Operation Harvest encourages ordinary local people to hand in any weapons or explosives they may have hidden away.

The arms amnesty has been a great success in collecting bombs and grenades - one old man was only too happy to hand the soldiers a carrier bag packed full of volatile explosives -- but there's a noticeable lack of guns.

There is peace now, say the people, but for how long?

That's why the British Army is in Bosnia.

They are peacekeepers, they are adapting to face new challenges, but what they are doing is essential - stopping war and saving lives.