This project, which was started in March 1999 and concluded in July 2002, was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and implemented by Dr Thorsten Stodiek. The aim of the study was to develop a concept for an international police force, which describes the type of police capable of resolving certain categories of conflicts and discusses the means and law enforcement authority this police force requires to implement its mandates.

In 1999, the theoretical aspects of characterizing the ideal type of international police force and defining the requirements for the success and functioning of international police forces were developed. In 2000 and 2001, eight comparative case studies on UN and OSCE civilian police missions were conducted. The focus of this research was on the missions in Namibia, Cambodia, Mostar (B-H), Eastern Slavonia, Bosnia and Her-zegovina, Haiti, Kosovo and East-Timor. The goal of conducting the case studies was to identify the reasons for the success, as well as the shortcomings, of the different po-lice operations. Special emphasis was placed on the analysis of the UN Interim Ad-ministration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), given that, within this mission, the UN Civilian Police (UNCIVPOL) had, for the first time, been entrusted with particularly complex tasks of armed law enforcement. In June 2000, the project researcher took a trip to Kosovo to conduct interviews and to initiate the distribution of 500 assessment questionnaires to a largely representative cross-section of mission police from 53 different nations. This was done in order to as-certain the latest developments at the Mission and acquire first-hand knowledge of police viewpoints. In 2001, the primary focus of the project work was on the statistical evaluation and analysis of the questionnaires returned. The findings of this evaluation, the results of the remaining case analyses and the international police force concept developed in the project, provided the basis for the researcher's discussions with representatives from several delegations of OSCE participating States and at the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna as well as at the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York.

Based on the findings of these discussions, in 2002, additional research emphasis was placed on OSCE engagement in the field of reforming and training multi-ethnic police forces in war-torn societies, as well as on the topic of defining the basic elements of an interim UN code of police, criminal, and procedural law to be used in international police missions.

The study shows that much improvement is needed in the field of international police missions; areas that need to be addressed vary from shortages in materials and personnel, to a lack of language skills and technical training, to cases of attitudes of indifference among policemen, and of cultural differences in the treatment of men of equal or different ranks as well as their behaviour towards the population. Sometimes these factors resulted in poor effectiveness and low acceptance in the population. In addition, due to a deficiency in well-defined orders, policemen in Kosovo applied their own national investigative procedures, which differed from local regulations, leading to a delay in combating crime. Furthermore, the policemen were in the precarious position of not knowing which law to apply: not only were local laws unknown to them, but in 1999, the Kosovo-Albanian judges also refused to accept the Yugoslav laws valid at that time, meaning it took months before an agreement could be reached. Based on these and many other findings, the following represent this study's most important political recommendations. First, the capacity to deploy police officers rapidly is of utmost importance. To ensure this, the police roster of the United Nations Stand-by Arrangement System should be augmented. Furthermore, gendarmerie-like units are necessary for special police duties such as riot control. Here again, a multinational body would strengthen acceptance by the population. In addition, special emphasis should be placed on hiring female officers: local women, possibly the victims of specific types of crimes such as rape, forced prostitution and domestic violence, would be more willing to contact officers of their own sex.

Secondly, with respect to obtaining a common high standard of performance for UN police officers, UN member states should offer multinational training courses.

Thirdly, the legal situation of the police force has to be improved, perhaps through an interim UN code of police, criminal, and procedural law that would remain in effect until national or regional law and the necessary institutions have been established. As mentioned above, the study describes the basic elements of such an interim law. The UN should, at the same time, enlarge its capacity to send lawyers, prosecutors and judges who would facilitate the creation of a criminal and prison law.
The findings of the study were presented to a broader public at several conferences.