Making the International Work: Police Training Experts as Brokers for International Missions

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the years, the police have become a central component of international peace- and statebuilding operations. However, predominantly trained and socialized as members of a domestic police service, police officers enter the global arena only – if ever – temporarily: their international deployment is often merely an interlude to their regular domestic police service. Pre-deployment training for international missions is therefore deemed vital for their success. When abroad, officers oftentimes find themselves carrying out work that has little resemblance to everyday police work back at home. By conceptualizing police training experts as “brokers”, the article helps to uncover the practices these brokers deploy to bridge the boundary between domestic policing and international missions. The research for this article was informed by practice theoretical considerations and ethnographically informed research strategies. It reveals that in several European countries, trainers’ brokerage is primarily practiced as a passing on of recent personal experience, by the creation of artificial borderlands that are meant to mimic the reality on the ground, and by diluting the boundary temporarily.