ABSTRACT
The United Nations (UN) has provided civilian police to help support its peace operations for decades. Yet those police, known initially as CIVPOL and more recently as UNPOL, are increasingly being called upon to undertake peace-building as well as peacekeeping tasks. This chapter outlines the move from nonexecutive SMART (support, monitoring, advising, reporting, and training) models of policing in traditional peacekeeping operations to more assertive peace operations that have required executive policing roles, and thence to a new focus on institutional reform and rebuilding efforts. In charting these changes, the chapter then outlines how the UN Police Division at UN Headquarters in New York has changed in recent years in light of the challenges posed by these shifts, before closing with a discussion of future issues that will impact upon ongoing reform efforts.
