Sharing Sovereignty in the Streets: International Policing in Fragile States

Bolstering basic law enforcement is a major aim of most contemporary peacekeeping missions. In some cases, when local police forces have failed, governments have allowed international personnel to step into the breach and share law enforcement authority with the state. These 'sovereignty-sharing' ventures have had two prime mandates - to provide effective stopgap security and strengthen domestic police institutions. This article argues that external actors sometimes have provided useful emergency services, largely through paramilitary policing, but have struggled greatly to model effective general law enforcement and embed durable domestic reforms. A major reason is that most joint policing ventures have been built on precarious political foundations. Although national and international interests sometimes have converged amid security crises, the partners' commitments generally have waned or diverged regarding ordinary community policing and institutional reform. This has contributed to ambiguous agreements and undermined cooperation in the field, as well as efforts to embed sustainable domestic reform.