ABSTRACT
Michel Foucault once observed that ‘relations of power are perhaps among the best hidden things in the social body’ (Foucault 1988c: 118). In the case of ESDP police missions this is certainly the case. Hence, it is not surprising that the policy-oriented literature on European security often laments the lack of forceful means available to police missions (ICG 2005b). Even national EU policy-makers rarely seem to be aware of the power operating in and through this peacebuilding tool (Bascone 2004: 12). In this chapter, we challenge the commonsensical view that ESDP police missions are ‘weak’ because they are small-scale operations lacking the means to use big sticks and juicy carrots to reform the security sector in divided countries. To this end, we draw on governmentality theory to extend our detailed exploration of the seeming banality of the interventions carried out by the EUPM and EUPOL Proxima. Unlike more traditional approaches in international relations scholarship, a governmental framework is not fixated on the conspicuous exercise of power and its forceful effects. Its focus on capillary, non-sovereign forms of power makes it well suited for bringing into relief how ESDP police missions refashion, reposition and reorganize law enforcement officials in host societies. The chapter falls into three parts. We begin by asking, how did power
take shape and come into play in the police aid delivered by the EUPM and Proxima. The question directs our attention to the political technologies by virtue of which the missions acted upon local police officers and police organizations. In the second part of the chapter, we inquire into the policing knowledge or rationality that structured the reforms of the missions. We show its contingent nature and the effects it had on the policing style in the target countries. This chapter, then, excavates relations of power/knowledge, strips them of their normal, natural and self-evident character and thus makes visible their contingency, which is essential for their functioning. And while the details of the analysis are case-specific, the identified rationality and mechanics of power are of a general nature and can therefore be found in other ESDP police missions. In Chapter 7, we exploit the clearing created by our excavation to normatively engage the power in ESDP police aid and to suggest practical ways to place limits on its pastoral practices.
