ABSTRACT
Security and the rule of law are recognized as central to the success of international peacebuilding and statebuilding in fragile and post-conflict states. Introducing security and the rule of law in conflict zones or countries coming out of a conflict is understood as involving the reform or building of the national armed forces, the police, judiciary and courts, including the strengthening of human rights, civil society, political parties, and parliamentary institutions. Security sector reform (SSR) policies toward fragile states are relatively new phenomena that have their origin in the transformation of UN peacekeeping practices in the late 1990s, with the development of the concept of ‘peacebuilding’ and the growth of UN involvement in running international administrations (Ahmed et al., 2007). The European Union (EU) – together with the United Nations (UN), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – is at present one of the leading international organizations undertaking SSR policies in fragile states (Spence and Fluri, 2008). In the immediate post-Cold War period, the European Commission had run training programs for police reform in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe and in Latin America, but in 2003 the nature of its engagement changed. With the development of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP – formerly the European Security and Defence Policy, ESDP), the EU assumed the role of reforming police forces in conflict zones in its neighborhood and beyond by sending police officers through new command structures controlled by the European Council. In fact, under the ESDP from 2003 to 2011, the EU conducted 15 police missions in Asia, the Balkans, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa.
