Filling the Security Gap: International Approaches to Policing in Conflict
Both during and after conflict, police play a vital role in restoring public security and rebuilding local capacity to uphold the rule of law. But local law enforcement may sometimes be unable or unwilling to provide policing services in conflict-affected settings, which means the international community is often called on to fill the security gap. To do so, the international community requires the ability to rapidly deploy policing experts and calibrate the capacities and mandates of policing missions to the demands of volatile environments.
To better tailor these police interventions, international actors including NATO and the U.N. have examined past efforts — such as those in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Afghanistan — to develop specialized models for policing and police capacity-building in conflict-affected settings.
On December 6, USIP hosted an in-person and virtual conversation that explored how past international policing and reform efforts make the case for specialized policing interventions, what these specialized models look like in practice, and how they could be applied to current and emerging conflicts.
Continue the conversation on Twitter using #PolicingInConflict.
Speakers
Lise Grande
President and CEO, U.S. Institute of Peace
Col. Giuseppe De Magistris
Director, NATO Stability Policing Centre of Excellence
Jaswant Lal
Officer-in-Charge, Strategic Policy and Development Section, U.N. Police Division
John F. Sopko
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction
Amb. Lars-Gunnar Wigemark
Head of Mission, EULEX Kosovo
Philippe Leroux-Martin, moderator
Director, Governance, Justice and Security, U.S. Institute of Peace
