Research Brief
Phase One:
The importance of policing functions in contemporary peace operations is widely recognised. Police involvement in programmes such as the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) proves mission critical in the war-to-peace transition. As such, evaluation of police performance is crucial to current and future success. Despite a recent increase in demand for police in international peace operations, it is evident that attempts to evaluate the efficacy of their activity have been conspicuous in their absence.
Against the complex backdrop of disparate mission environments and levels of analysis, this deficit poses a genuine impediment to improving the efficacy of policing. In order to address the problem, this research begins by observing that those concerned with assessing policing fit into two broad categories: firstly, practitioners such as the UN whose remit is to deploy police; secondly, research organisations, including think-tanks and academia, engaged with conceptualising these activities.
After depicting the current state of play, the paper will endeavour to point out certain disconnects that often exist between these two sets of actors, which, after all, share the same overriding goal of improving operational effectiveness. In general, despite explicit recognition of the need to fill this gap, practitioners have yet to embed the sophisticated measurement tools proposed by researchers which attempt to more clearly identify causality and attribute success.
This research aims to highlight ways in which the understanding of this vital but to-date largely unresolved area can be advanced, and in doing so help to reduce the current conceptual space between ‘those doing’ and ‘those advising’. While maintaining that this gap can be breached with careful consultation and exchange, the paper will identify both opportunities and challenges to the project of synthesising disparate approaches toward evaluating policing efforts in peace operations.
Phase Two:
Based on the findings of Phase One, this research will move towards developing a specific set of indicators and a framework within which these can be ordered and weighted. The aim is to design a systematic tool which is sufficiently flexible for application across the full gamut of policing mandates. It should utilise both quantitative and qualitative measures, incorporating observable activities, outputs and the latent socio-behavioural change more indicative of outcomes with multivariate inputs. The model will be field-tested in relevant missions to determine its suitability and utility. Subsequent to further refinement and revision, the thesis will propose a framework for evaluating the performance of police in peace operations.