International Peace Support Operations Research Articles

A Bird’s-Eye View from the Field—How a Police Experts Network Can Be an Important Link in Facilitating Sustainable Community-Oriented Policing in Post-Conflict Contexts

Police reform in post-conflict societies is increasingly important in international peace support operations. Post-conflict situations are complex, and addressing security and insecurity issues is therefore challenging. Evaluations, field reports and research have frequently highlighted challenges related to how assistance is provided in connection with police reform. A common finding in these evaluations is that police reform programmes without local ownership and community involvement and support have little chance of succeeding. Community-oriented policing (COP) has therefore become an important policing philosophy and strategy in this context. This paper addresses issues related to the challenges in implementation of police reform by exploring the perennial question of how police assistance can be better utilised in a sustainable manner in post-conflict contexts. The paper is divided in two sections. In the first, we identify some key challenges facing international police assistance. Here we discuss six main challenges grounded in secondary literature comprising academic research and police mission reports. In the next section using the example of a broadly based police experts network (PEN) established in connection with the EU-funded research project ‘Community-Based Policing and Post-Conflict Police Reform’, the paper discusses how such a network can play an important role in contributing to policy formation, education and training programme development for use in police reform projects. The creation of the e-handbook and e-learning shows the potential for such a network to work and contribute in a cross-disciplinary manner. Furthermore, we identify four key ways in which this type of network can contribute to improved international police assistance. The work is exploratory and contributes to understanding of the complexities of police assistance in post-conflict contexts.

A Bird’s-Eye View from the Field—How a Police Experts Network Can Be an Important Link in Facilitating Sustainable Community-Oriented Policing in Post-Conflict Contexts

Police reform in post-conflict societies is increasingly important in international peace support operations. Post-conflict situations are complex, and addressing security and insecurity issues is therefore challenging. Evaluations, field reports and research have frequently highlighted challenges related to how assistance is provided in connection with police reform. A common finding in these evaluations is that police reform programmes without local ownership and community involvement and support have little chance of succeeding. Community-oriented policing (COP) has therefore become an important policing philosophy and strategy in this context. This paper addresses issues related to the challenges in implementation of police reform by exploring the perennial question of how police assistance can be better utilised in a sustainable manner in post-conflict contexts. The paper is divided in two sections. In the first, we identify some key challenges facing international police assistance. Here we discuss six main challenges grounded in secondary literature comprising academic research and police mission reports. In the next section using the example of a broadly based police experts network (PEN) established in connection with the EU-funded research project ‘Community-Based Policing and Post-Conflict Police Reform’, the paper discusses how such a network can play an important role in contributing to policy formation, education and training programme development for use in police reform projects. The creation of the e-handbook and e-learning shows the potential for such a network to work and contribute in a cross-disciplinary manner. Furthermore, we identify four key ways in which this type of network can contribute to improved international police assistance. The work is exploratory and contributes to understanding of the complexities of police assistance in post-conflict contexts.

ФАХОВА КОМПЕТЕНТНІСТЬ ОФІЦЕРІВ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОГО ПЕРСОНАЛУ ЗБРОЙНИХ СИЛ УКРАЇНИ

Introduction: The modern educational paradigm is aimed at implementing a competency-based approach in training professionals for professional activities. The military profession, which requires thorough and comprehensive training of its personnel for activities in various conditions of complex and dynamic circumstances, in the presence of threats and risks to life and health, is no exception. It is the development of a serviceman's competence that should become the main reference point in his military training. Thus, there is a pedagogical contradiction between the need to train competent military personnel to perform tasks in the national staff of international peace support operations and the lack of pedagogical research on the content and structure of their competence. Our study is aimed at overcoming this contradiction, which determines its relevance for modern military education.Thepurposeis to determine the content of the training of officers of national personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to participate in international peace support operationsbased on the structure and nature of their professional competence.Results: The application of the competency approach in the study allowed to implement innovative views in modern education, the transition to the system of competencies in the design and modernization of the content of military education and quality control. The article substantiates the content and structure of professional competence the national personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as a component of military-professional competence, which integrates on military-special, socio-cultural and communicative components.Originality: A comprehensive model of the professional competency of national staff officers is proposed, which is the scientific substantiation of the standard of professional education, which is based on the qualification model of a specialist attached to the object and subject of peacekeeping.Conclusion: The article resolves the scientific contradiction. The proposed competency model could form the basis for officers' preparation for frequent international peacekeeping and security operations.

ПРИНЦИПИ ТА ПІДХОДИ ДО ПІДГОТОВКИ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОГО ПЕРСОНАЛУ ЗБРОЙНИХ СИЛ УКРАЇНИ ДО УЧАСТІ У МІЖНАРОДНИХ ОПЕРАЦІЯХ З ПІДТРИМАННЯ МИРУ І БЕЗПЕКИ

Introduction. Participation of national personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in international peace support operations is a real opportunity to acquire military expertise, military training at the expense of external financing, obtaining experience of working with foreign partners, performing tasks under other standards, and increasing interoperability with international partners.Purpose. The goal of this article is substantiation of the methodological principles for the training of national personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for participation in international peace support operations in the context of a higher military educational institution.Methods. The author used the next scientific methods: induction, deduction, classification, systematization and comparative analysis of theoretical sources on the problem of professional training of military specialists.Results. It has been found that the activities of the national personnel in international peace support operations have a number of peculiarities in relation to his activities according to duties. Their essence in the necessity to establish communication with servicemen from different countries and jointly carry out tasks, as well as interact with the local population in the country where the operation is conducted and the parties of the confrontation. Originality. On the basis of analysis and generalization of the requirements of these approaches, a system of specific didactic principles is defined. In our opinion, the high result of the development of professional competence of officers of national personnel is possible provided that such specific principles are implemented: modeling, systematic and consistent, cultural compatibility, problem-solving, integration of sociocultural and military-professional content of training.Conclusion. For the proper organization of educational activities at the appropriate courses at the peacekeeping centers for the training of national personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for participation in international peace support operations, scientific approaches, which form the methodological basis of this process, are substantiated. It is determined that the most important methodological approaches in our study are: competence, systemic, contextual, activity and sociocultural.

Where is the local? Critical localism and peacebuilding

This article is primarily a piece of conceptual scoping and considers the concept of ‘the local’ in relation to peacebuilding. It notes how the local is simultaneously held to blame for conflicts (as unenlightened, dangerous, uncivilised) and is also regarded as a saviour for international peace support operations. Local legitimacy, partnership and ownership of international peace interventions are seen as a fast track to success, sustainability and exit. The article navigates its way around this confused understanding of the local and argues that the local is a (not always helpful) construction. It further argues that, by applying a critical lens towards the concept of the local, we can seek to separate the concept of the local from territory and see it in terms of activity, networks and relationships. This has implications for practice and ‘field’ work.

Civilian police use of English in international peace support operations

International peace operations are drawing increasingly on civilian police from many countries. To qualify, police need to be proficient in the mission official language (MOL), which is most often English. Language testing currently used to measure candidates’ MOL expertise may not however reflect the actual skills required of these peacekeepers. The experience of UN civilian police is used to compare pre‐mission peacekeeping training and testing with on‐the‐job linguistic needs, based on surveys. Findings include MOL proficiency requirements for various peacekeeping positions. A program which combines language and peacekeeping content would address the gap between training and practice for civilian peacekeeping police.

Peace support operations in Africa: A joint British-Kenyan initiative

Conference held at the Peace Support Training Centre, Nairobi, 19–30 March 2007 It is remarkable how little is known by Africanists about the extensive Western-sponsored military initiatives currently under way across the continent. It is equally as remarkable that those militaries have little exposure to the academic literature addressing the broader context in which they operate. It is important, therefore, that events such as the 6th International Peace Support Operations Senior Mission Leaders’ Course held at the Peace Support Training Centre, Nairobi, Kenya, and the wider regional security initiatives that they represent, are reported in the academic press, for the people involved are those attempting to translate lofty government ‘visions’ of a brighter future for Africa into concrete actions. African and Western military structures are responsible for channelling hundreds of millions of pounds into programmes for security sector reform, conflict resolution and conflict termination, and peace support. This particular event, held in Nairobi in March 2007, brought together senior military officers and civilians from across the continent and beyond to discuss and learn about Peace Support Operations from speakers across a diverse range of professional callings. Now in its sixth year, the International Peace Support Senior Mission Leaders’ Course is sponsored by the British and Kenyan governments, specifically by the Kenyan Peace Support Training Centre and the British Peace Support Team Eastern Africa, responsible for dispensing African Conflict Prevention Pool funds throughout the region in support of British government policy.1

International peace support operations and CIVPOL: Should there be a permanent global gendarmerie?

Current peace support operations present problems which are too ambitious for a UN civilian police mission (referred to here as CIVPOL), such as IPTF in Bosnia, to tackle but which are not appropriate for the military. However, CIVPOL appears to fulfil a need in spite of its weaknesses. Recently an attempt to further discussion on how CIVPOL might be strengthened was made by the Secretary‐General of NATO who called for a permanent global gendarmerie to solve the existing policy and practical inadequacies of such operations. It is unlikely that this would be achieved because strengthening CIVPOL through the establishment of a gendarmerie will not solve any policing problems, and would raise two fundamental issues. First, it is difficult to see the present organization remodelling itself into a capable monitoring or training organization for creating state policing on liberal democratic lines. Second, it is most unlikely that a gendarmerie could solve the problems or fulfil the requirements of existing CIVPOL. The CIVPOL mandate is complex and is yet to identify realistic goals for itself, but a permanent UN‐based gendarmerie is not the answer to what is essentially a policy vacuum.