What Works: Maximising the Internal Security Benefits of International Police Missions

In a changing strategic environment characterized by a trend towards the militarization of security, several countries are keeping their commitment to civilian crisis management and to multilateral police missions in particular. At the European Union (EU) level for example, the 2022 EU Strategic Compass for Security and Defence emphasizes the EU-wide commitment to strengthen
civilian Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions and to renew the civilian CSDP Compact.

While demand for officers to participate in missions is rapidly growing, the supply of available officers has stagnated or even declined. Several studies have demonstrated that one of the reasons is that police institutions do not yet fully recognize the internal-external security nexus and fail to fully maximize the benefits of seconding staff to international missions.

The governments of France and the Netherlands have commissioned this study to contribute to the sharing of good practices and experiences, and to initiate further discussions between interested countries.

This report presents a range of good practices employed by states to maximize the benefits of mission participation to police institutions and serve internal security objectives when making officers available. It also aims to inform discussions around ongoing efforts to develop the roadmap towards the Civilian Compact 2.0 by EU Member States (EUMS).