ABSTRACT

In previous times, when large relatively slow moving armies fought wars, the postwar phase generally had sufficient numbers of soldiers to effectively occupy the captured territory and ensure public security and safety until the occupying power could create and put in place the appropriate governance structures. Today’s swiftly waged wars, featuring high-tech weapons and tactics and relatively small numbers of troops, like Iraq and Kosovo, have insufficient military forces in place or available to meet these tasks, and local capacity has generally been disabled. Consequently, a serious public security and safety gap occurs. The same gap often occurs in weak or failed states emerging from civil war or other sorts of conflict, such as Sudan, Liberia, and Haiti, where the United Nations often deploys peace operations.