This paper presents preliminary research about the donor aid programs that contribute to police-building in the `Arc of Responsibility' in the Pacific and Australia's `near-abroad'. It focuses on the capacity building projects that exist in Timor Leste and Solomon Islands with respect to police training. The two cases represent examples of exogenous state-building, situations in which the form and function of the state is to a great extent being dictated by outside actors. The international community provides different forms of assistance toward strengthening state capacity in the policing sector and this paper explores how police training programs and the deployment of peacekeeping police articulate with the concept of Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) as outlined in the UN Secretary General's 2009 report. This early survey forms part of a larger project that will include Papua New Guinea. One issue so far which has become apparent is that there are a range of training programs and models in place, conducted by different international actors. While the language of police training, at this stage at least, does not specifically include references to the Responsibility to Protect, there is a great deal of intersection between the basic functions of police in Protection of Civilians (POC) in state-building missions and the broader intentions of RtoP.
History
Citation
Hawksley, C. (2010). Policing and the responsibility to protect in oceania: a preliminary survey of policing aid programs in the 'Arc of Responsibility'. In J. Walker (Eds.), Refereed Proceedings of Fourth Oceanic Conference on International Studies (pp. 1-16). Auckland, New Zealand: The University of Auckland.