Community Policing in Bosnia
The Institute is teaching conflict analysis and management skills to a broad range of police in Bosnia to help restore the integrity of community policing.
ecent wars in the Balkans have undermined the normal functioning of everyday social life in the countries where they were fought. Establishing or re-creating a democratic community police force?one that serves the community, not the state or a particular political leader?is key to restoring public security and a sense of stability, notes Lewis Rasmussen, program officer in the Education and Training Program at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Indeed, the international community will not feel comfortable transferring authority and responsibility back to the local population in Bosnia until such a police force exists, he says.
The Institute of Peace?at the request of the State Department?recently launched an expansive training in conflict analysis and management for a broad range of Bosnian police and for U.S. police preparing for a tour of duty in Bosnia. Rasmussen is directing the training.
The Trainings
As part of predeployment seminars for U.S. police, the Institute offered three day-long training programs this spring and summer in Dallas?Ft. Worth for 175 U.S. officers before they joined the International Police Task Force (IPTF) as police monitors and advisers in Bosnia. Jaco Cilliers, a consultant and expert in international negotiation, served as co-trainer. The training focused on conflict analysis, and in particular on the nuances of the conflict in Bosnia. The seminar sought to help trainees improve their problem solving and negotiation skills, especially in dealing with the types of situations they would be likely to encounter in Bosnia, Rasmussen says.
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| Participants in the training on culture and conflict. |
Out of this training, the Institute, responding to a request by ICITAP, is developing a 12-hour seminar that will be integrated into ICITAP?s standard curriculum on civil disorder, which is taught internationally. Tim Day, a retired U.S. police officer who served on the IPTF in Bosnia and who was a primary ICITAP instructor, is serving as a consultant on the project.
In collaboration with ICITAP, the Institute will hold week-long trainings in the fall for select chiefs of police and their key personnel in the Federation and Republika Srpska. A separate seminar on conflict analysis and strategic planning for the Federation?s minister of the interior and his deputy and the cantonal ministers of police and their deputies is also being planned.
?In the environment of politically motivated hatred in Bosnia, everybody has been both victim and victimizer, every group has caused suffering and has suffered,? Rasmussen says. ?At this point, the issue is no longer about blame. The issue is how can a country, how can the members of that society, begin to move forward, to get on with their lives. Equipping the police with a range of conflict analysis and management skills is essential to the transition to democratic and community- oriented policing and, ultimately, to a sustainable peace.?
Training Focuses on Culture and Conflict
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| Barbara Wien |
During the training, participants analyzed two high-conflict areas, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. Exercises included role-playing, case studies, active-listening, and presentations and discussions, including such topics as ?Analyzing Cross-Cultural Conflicts Experienced by USIA Officers? and ?The Importance of Culture in the Making of U.S. Foreign Policy.? Institute senior scholars from the regions served as cultural ?interpreters? and instructors. The training emphasized cross-cultural analysis skills and understanding the role and skills of a ?neutral? third party.
Educators Study Conflict and Peacemaking
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| Participants in the faculty seminar. |
The 28 participants in the faculty seminar, ?Conflict and Peacemaking in an Evolving World,? explored the full range of conflict from sources of conflict to rebuilding war-torn societies. In particular, the seminar focused on the role of outside parties in conflict management. Panel discussions by experts also included conflict prevention, management, and resolution; the role of nongovernmental organizations in resolving conflicts; the prospects for rule of law in war-torn societies; the role of the media; resources and technology for teaching and scholarship; and related topics. Speakers discussed a variety of conflict situations including the Balkans, Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Iraq, and South Asia, where nuclear proliferation has become a major international concern.
Twenty-five secondary school social science teachers attended the summer institute on ?International Peace, Security, and Conflict Management.? Participants explored the nature of international conflict, teaching about conflict, conflict prevention, and the limits of military peacekeeping operations.
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