Transnational police building: critical lessons from Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands

Abstract

In this paper we begin by defining and examining the concept of police building. Its historical precedents and contemporary forms are briefly reviewed, showing a variety of motives and agendas for this kind of institution building. We argue that police building has been a relatively neglected dimension of nation- and state-building exercises, despite its importance to functions of pacification and restoration of law and order. The emerging literature on international police reform and capacity building tends to adopt a narrow institutionalist and universalistic approach that does not take sufficient account of the politics of police building. This politics is multilayered and varies from the formal to the informal. Using two case studies focusing on events in 2006 in Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands, the reasons for the fragility of many current police-building projects are considered. In both cases, we argue, police capacity builders paid insufficient attention to the political architecture and milieu of public safety.

Notes

This paper arises out of an Australian Research Council Project undertaken with the Australian Federal Police on Policing the Neighbourhood.

1 Aus aid (2005).

2 It also reflects the recent emergence of the concept of peace building to embrace peacekeeping along with the other aspects of what are sometimes called ‘complex peace operations’ (UN, 2000: 6; Cutillo, 2006; Cockayne & Malone, 2004).

3 The term ‘nation building’ is now commonly used with reference to post-conflict international interventions in fragile or failed states. However, the primary focus of such interventions is the rebuilding of state structures, including the police, rather than building a nation in the literal sense of nurturing a shared sense of identity among the citizens of a particular country.

4 As corroboration of this statement, readers are encouraged to consult the indexes and tables of contents of recent nation-building and state-building literature in order to see how much or how little discussion there is about civilian policing.

5 See Oxfam (2006).

6 For example, Jones et al. (2005) deal with ‘establishing law and order after conflict’; Mobekk (2005) looks at UN-led policing missions, while Bayley (2006) is particularly interested in how the USA can promote the development of democratic policing abroad.

7 The kind of policing model transferred through such interventions tends to be a standardised version of that of the donor country, although it rarely reflects the more significant innovations (eg in areas of partnership policing, crime prevention and restorative justice) that have occurred in many developed countries.

8 Despite a significant international military and police presence since then, there are still clear signs that the chaos has not abated completely. The recent escape (described as a ‘walk-out’ in some reports) on 30 August 2006 by 57 prisoners (including the leader of the ‘Petitioners’) from the Dili Gaol, none of which (at the time of writing) had been recaptured, points to ongoing difficulties in the security situation.

9 Kemakeza had been sacked for alleged corruption when Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for National Unity Reconciliation and Peace in the previous government (Dinnen, 2002: 294).

10 The ppf includes contingents from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

11 Mike Wheatley (former assistant commissioner, rsip), ‘ramsi Tuesday wasn't to do with intelligence failure’, New Matilda, 24 May 2006, at http://www.newmatilda.com; and Frank Short (former commissioner, rsip), ‘Honiara riot warrants formal inquiry’, Pacific Islands Report, 22 May 2006, at http://archives.pireport.org/archive/2006/May/05-24-com.htm.

12 A leaked email from a ramsi official described the choice between Rini and Sogavare as prime minister as ‘depressing’. A copy of the email ended up in the possession of Mr Sogavare and was a source of considerable embarrassment to ramsi officials and the Australian government. It also described extensive behind-the-scenes lobbying against Rini by Patrick Cole, the Australian High Commissioner. See ‘Leaked email shows hand of Canberra in Honiara’, The Age, 1 May 2006, at http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/leaked-email-shows-hand-of-canberra/2006/04/30.

13 Solomon Islands government, ‘Establishment of commission of inquiry into April civil unrest’, press release, 13 July 2006.

14 Mick Keelty, ‘Policing in a foreign policy space’, address by the Federal Police Commissioner to the National Press Club, Canberra, 11 October 2006.