28 research outputs found
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The EU and its policy towards security sector reform: a new example of the "conceptual-contextual" divide?
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La Contribucion del Concepto de Seguridad Humana a los Balcanes Occidentales (The Contribution of the Concept of Human Security to the Western Balkans)
The creation, reform and/or restructuring of the police in post-conflict societies remains one of the key challenges for practitioners and scholars in the contemporary fields of peace and security, particularly due to the changing nature of conflicts. Since the 1990s the world has witnessed a proliferation of international police missions, with regional organisations gradually acquiring a prominent role. This paper analyses the 2003-2005 period of the European Union Police Mission (EUPM) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Much is at stake in this mission, both in terms of the development of the EU´s external identity but also for Bosnia and Herzegovina's road to EU membership and sustainable peace. This paper will argue that by 2005 the balance sheet was mixed. EUPM fell short of fulfilling its overall goal of 'Europeanising' Bosnian police services, and of its desire to be seen as providing that additional ingredient in police matters that would set it apart from the earlier UN mission. Nevertheless, despite its shortcomings, the Mission did not merit the harsh criticisms it was faced with. Its lack of success was not entirely the Mission's doing. The paper focuses on three aspects: political and economic viability and sustainability, security levels in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and institution and capacity building. The explanatory framework used in this paper is based on the democratic policing discourse. In doing so the argument developed here will also shed light on the nature of so-called âbest European practicesâ in police matters
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The European Union Police Mission: The Beginning of a New Future for Bosnia and Herzegovina?
The creation, reform and/or restructuring of the police in post-conflict societies remains one of the key challenges for practitioners and scholars in the contemporary fields of peace and security, particularly due to the changing nature of conflicts. Since the 1990s the world has witnessed a proliferation of international police missions, with regional organisations gradually acquiring a prominent role. This paper analyses the 2003-2005 period of the European Union Police Mission (EUPM) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Much is at stake in this mission, both in terms of the development of the EU´s external identity but also for Bosnia and Herzegovina's road to EU membership and sustainable peace. This paper will argue that by 2005 the balance sheet was mixed. EUPM fell short of fulfilling its overall goal of 'Europeanising' Bosnian police services, and of its desire to be seen as providing that additional ingredient in police matters that would set it apart from the earlier UN mission. Nevertheless, despite its shortcomings, the Mission did not merit the harsh criticisms it was faced with. Its lack of success was not entirely the Mission's doing. The paper focuses on three aspects: political and economic viability and sustainability, security levels in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and institution and capacity building. The explanatory framework used in this paper is based on the democratic policing discourse. In doing so the argument developed here will also shed light on the nature of so-called âbest European practicesâ in police matters
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Police Co-operation in the Field of Counter-Terrorism: The Continuity of a Bottom-Up Approach
Terrorism is currently one of the key concerns for the European Union. This has not always been the case, as illustrated by the lack of interest Spain faced for years to advance at the European level its agenda vis-Ă -vis the terrorist group ETA. However, the trend begun by the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 and followed, on European soil, by March 11 2004 in Madrid and July 7 2005 in London, in addition to the disrupted attempts in Germany and the UK in the summer of 2006, have radically changed the picture. Indeed, the EU is increasingly aware of the vulnerability of its societies to this security threat. Spain has adequately exploited this change in attitude to become a key developer of the Unionâs counter-terrorist policy. This article will provide an account of how the government of JosĂŠ Luis RodrĂguez Zapatero, in power since 2004, has built on Spainâs achievements to influence the European counter-terrorist agenda. The argument will focus on Zapateroâs goals and accomplishments in the area of police cooperation for counter-terrorist matters and, where possible, on related measures in the areas of judicial cooperation, asylum and extradition. Measures in these other fields of law-enforcement are crucial for effective police cooperation as a successful fight against terrorism depends on developing a coherent, comprehensive strategy that can respond effectively to the multifaceted nature of this security problem
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Book Review: Garland H. Williams, Engineering Peace: the Military Role in Postconflict Reconstruction
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The Defence of an Institution under Challenge: The EU and the International Criminal Court
This chapter analyses EU deployment of strategies of âentrenchmentâ and âaccommodationâ to react to challenges that could have negatively affectedâor that might in the future negatively affectâthe attainment of universal ratification of the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Courtâs institutional development and its day-to-day effectiveness. Two episodes are discussed: First, US policy before and after the signing of the Rome Statute (a power-based challenge) and resultant limitations on the Courtâs independence and jurisdiction following the misalignment of power with institution and ideas; and, second, the resentment increasingly voiced by the African Union on behalf of certain African states over the Courtâs caseload (ideational-based challenge) and the impact this resentment could have on the normative congruence between the Court and prevailing ideas in the international structure
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Becoming âEuropeanâ through Police Reform: a Successful Strategy in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
Police reform plays a key role in Bosnia and Herzegovinaâs internationally-supervised statebuilding process. It is one of the four key conditions to move the country closer to its European future. Against this background the article analyses the role that the European Union Police Mission (EUPM) plays in preparing Bosnian police agencies for this challenge. Using as guiding tools some of the key elements of the Missionâs leitmotifâlocal ownership, European police standardsâthe article comes to the conclusion that EUPM has introduced much needed reforms but these have been overshadowed, among other things, by the police restructuring process and its unnecessary politicisation of âEuropean police standards/practicesâ to fit a model of statehood not shared by all local stakeholders
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