Stability Policing: Why is it taking root so slowly?

Stability Policing: a toolkit to project stability - NATO Supreme Command Transformation, 2017

This chapter describes the future role(s) of gendarmeries in both the national and the international context, a possible future that can be characterised by an ever-growing interconnectedness an interdependence and complexity that go together with globalisation. The effects on politics and international relations are touched upon and used as a stepping stone to assess the relevance, potential role (and mandate), and added value(s) of gendarmeries. Both in the national and the international context. Focussing on stability policing, it is argued that the characteristics of gendarmeries enable them to police in less benign, less stable, or less secure environments. It also argues the specific characteristics of gendarmeries, as an asset of NATO's stability policing capabilities, enabling them to be a linking pin between the worlds of the military and civil (police) organisations, and could be very useful in the beginning of an operation or/and as bridging capacity during the transfer of authority between UN or EU missions and NATO.

This license allows for copying any part of the work for personal and commercial use, providing author attribution is clearly stated. This book was originally published by the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), an international foundation whose mission is to assist the international community in pursuing good governance and reform of the security sector. The title transferred to Ubiquity Press when the series moved to an open access platform. The full text of this book was peer reviewed according to the original publisher's policy at the time. The original ISBN for this title was 978-92-9222-286-4. SSR Papers is a flagship DCAF publication series intended to contribute innovative thinking on important themes and approaches relating to security sector reform (SSR) in the broader context of security sector governance (SSG). Papers provide original and provocative analysis on topics that are directly linked to the challenges of a governance-driven security sector reform agenda. SSR Papers are intended for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners involved in this field. The views expressed are those of the author(s) alone and do not in any way reflect the views of the institutions referred to or represented within this paper.

Irregular Warfare Initiative, 2023

In the wake of escalating violence and deepening humanitarian crises in the Middle East, the international community finds itself at a pivotal juncture with recent calls for deploying a peacekeeping force to Gaza. As this discussion gains momentum, it highlights a vital yet frequently underestimated aspect of modern military operations: the practice of stability policing, commonly known as SP. Bridging the gap between military and police work, SP may play a significant role in maintaining order and fostering peace in volatile regions. Indeed, it could be a strategic asset in future planning for regions like Gaza, where the fabric of society has been severely disrupted by pervasive violence, leaving even the most fundamental services in ruins.

International Peacekeeping, 2022

Co-Operation, Contestation and Complexity in Peacebuilding: Post-Conflict Security Sector Reform, edited by Nadine Ansorg and Eleanor Gordon, London, Routledge, 2021, 142 pp., £47.99 (hardcover), ISBN 9780367637569.The United Nations and Security Sector Reform: Policy and Practice, edited by Adedeji Ebo and Heiner Hänggi, Lit Verlag, 2020, 408 pp., £33.1 (softcover), ISBN 9783643803115.Peacekeeping, Policing, and the Rule of Law after Civil War, by Robert A. Blair, Cambridge University Press, 2021, 267 pp., $34.99 (softcover), ISBN 9781108835213.

There appears to be a growing convergence between the police and the military of Western developed states. This has been argued to be problematic for a number of reasons, including the fact that this is out of step with current post-conflict peacebuilding efforts that aim to ensure a strict separation of these two agencies. This paper investigates the police-military relationship in contemporary peace operations from a number of different angles. It considers points of convergence and divergence both in theoretical terms and in different case studies, and investigates doctrinal developments that have been undertaken in recent efforts to demarcate these two roles more clearly. The paper argues that there are continuing significant functional and symbolic differences between these two agencies. Furthermore, there are practical and normative advantages to be gained from utilising police and military in distinctive ways in contemporary peace operations, and more needs to be done to establish what those appropriate ways for utilising those different agencies actually are in various security contexts.

In post-conflict situations, safety and security are major concerns. Increased levels of crime, violence and disorder associated with postconflict environments may exceed the ability of the police to maintain order, particularly if the police are expected to reform in-line with human rights, democratic values and citizen safety. If the police are given a paramilitary function which will enable them to fight militias and insurgents, it can easily destroy their legitimacy and create a police culture that does not promote democratic development. In addition, the military forces present in a post-conflict environment typically lack the skills to facilitate the transition from rule by force to stability and the rule of law. It may therefore be necessary to create a unique force that can both provide security and also promote transition to a more stable and accountable environment, thus allowing conventional police forces to focus on developing according to democratic values. This paper considers this unique force, its roles, and relationships with conventional police forces, military and peacekeeping forces, and the population in post-conflict situations.

2013

The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) is an international foundation whose mission is to assist the international community in pursuing good governance and reform of the security sector. The Centre develops and promotes norms and standards, conducts tailored policy research, identifies good practices and recommendations to promote democratic security sector governance, and provides in-country advisory support and practical assistance programmes. SSR Papers is a flagship DCAF publication series intended to contribute innovative thinking on important themes and approaches relating to security sector reform (SSR) in the broader context of security sector governance (SSG). Papers provide original and provocative analysis on topics that are directly linked to the challenges of a governance-driven security sector reform agenda. SSR Papers are intended for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners involved in this field.

The police can not be designed to annihilate the enemy. The citizen who is walking down the street, who is protesting, or even a citizen who is possibly committing a crime, is not an enemy. He is a citizen who has rights and these rights must be respected. When a society opts for a military police, what this society wants is a police force that fulfills orders without thinking. Police militarization enables and creates the police state. The argument for militarized police is simple, emotional and wrong. The debate on the demilitarization of the police is not new. The historical and social correlates of demilitarization in the police further the continuing debate about the effectiveness of the 'military model' in policing.However the recent protests in Ukraine have resurrected the question for debate.

International Peacekeeping, 2008

The United States has consistently failed to deal with the breakdown in public order that invariably confronts peace and stability operations in internal conflicts. Analysis of experience in Panama, Somalia, Haiti, the Balkans and Iraq demonstrates that indigenous police forces are typically incapable of providing law and order in the immediate aftermath of conflict, and so international forces must fill the gap-a task the US military has been unwilling and unprepared to assume. After 20 years of lessons learned (and not learned), this article argues that the United States must develop a civilian 'stability force' of constabulary and police personnel deployable at the outset of on operation to restore public order and lay the foundations for the rule of law.

In European history, war has played a major role in state-building and the state control on violence. But war is a very specific form of organized political violence, and it is decreasing on a global scale. Other forms of armed violence now dominate, ones that seem to undermine statebuilding, thus preventing the replication of European experiences. As a consequence, the main focus of the current state-building debate is on fragility and a lack of violence control inside these states.