[TimorLesteStudies] Publication: Transnational police building

Jennifer Drysdale jenster at cres10.anu.edu.au
Tue Sep 25 09:36:16 EST 2007



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

Authors: Andrew Goldsmith; Sinclair Dinnen
Published in: Third World Quarterly, Vol 38, Iss 6, September 2007, 
pp. 1091 - 1109


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.



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Jenny Drysdale
Moderator, Timor-Leste Studies Association List
Mobile 0407 230 772
Email Jennifer.Drysdale at anu.edu.au
Personal Website http://cres.anu.edu.au/~jenster
East Timor Studies www.etstudies-aust.org  



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