ARRC Journal 2019 | Page 89

READY FOR TODAY – EVOLVING FOR TOMORROW BRIDGING THE SECURITY GAP: STABILITY POLICING IN A NON-ARTICLE 5 ENVIRONMENT Captain Patrick Crossland, British Army The need for NATO to be equipped with a military capability of civil policing became apparent during the 1997 Stabilisation Force (SFOR) operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Allied Command Europe saw the space in the field of public order and security. Known as the security gap, it was the grey area between the SFOR military capabilities and the UN International Police Force mission, with no executive powers, as well as the capabilities of the local police forces, who often either lacked the capability or were unwilling to enforce the law. conflict process, concentrates on the requirements of the civil populace. Stability Policing, a concept described throughout the NATO AJP 3 doctrinal series, is defined as a set of police related activities for the restoration and/ or upholding of the public order, security and rule of law as well as the protection of human rights through supporting and, when necessary, temporarily replacing, the indigenous police forces, when the latter are either unable or unwilling to perform the function themselves. In this grey area, no party either could or wanted to take responsibility. Subsequently the gap was bridged by a military unit capable of performing some of the typical tasks of a civil police force and this was to be known as the NATO Multinational Specialised Unit (MSU). The MSU was made up of gendarmerie forces, which are military forces with a full police capability. Since then, this concept has been put into practise several times and the deployed MSUs have received the contribution of military police forces and infantry forces trained for the specific mission. A key example of this is the Kosovo Force MSU; KFOR MSU is based in Pristina and is composed entirely of Italian Carabinieri. It provides the KFOR commander with a capability for security operations including criminal intelligence, crowd and riot control as well as information gathering and assessment. The MSU can also provide advice, training and support to local police forces on a wide range of policing issues if required. These include law enforcement, combating organised crime and terrorism, war crime investigation, crime prevention and public security. The MSU is commanded by an Italian Carabinieri officer who advises the KFOR commander on all civilian police matters. The idea itself of military forces performing police duties to cover the ‘security gap’ has evolved up to the current concept of Stability Policing (SP). What is Stability Policing and how it is conducted? The concept of SP, targeted within the stabilisation and reconstruction post- Security Policing falls within the Security Sector Reform covered in the AJP-1 and AJP-3 doctrinal series, which entails reforming security organisations so that they can deliver an effective role in providing internal and external security with accountability, as well as the military assistance to civil authorities function envisaged in AJP-3.4, that may require involvement in civil security tasks. This includes operations to maintain local law and order until appropriate civil authorities can resume control of the task. Despite this, SP can’t be compressed within the confines of civil policing since it can embrace such a wide spectrum of activity that relates to other agencies or services that are most likely to occur. Stability Policing is conducted in unstable areas where NATO in engaged, throughout the spectrum of conflict ranging from peace to high intensity conflict. ALLIED RAPID REACTION CORPS 89