After over a decade of intensive experience with multifaceted peacekeeping and peacebuildingoperations, (1) many analysts have concluded thatestablishing a secure and stable environment is oneessential element for achieving a sustainable peace. As continued instability in Iraq and Afghanistanimpedes the restoration of normal lives for those countries' inhabitants, and as Haiti exhibitsrenewed instability, some Members of Congress are examining with renewed interest available toolsto provide effective security. While military forces are considered indispensable for establishinginitial security and often are also used to maintain law and order in peacekeeping and related"stability" or "stabilization" operations designed to normalize conditions in post-conflict and post-interventionenvironments, their use is often controversial. (2) Overthe past decade, internationalcivilian police (known as "CivPol") have become increasingly recognized as generally more suitedthan military forces for most law and order tasks, and their use has increased dramatically. TheSenate Foreign Relations Committee, in its March 2004 Report 108-248 accompanying the FY2005foreign relations authorization bill ( S. 2144 ), stated that it recognizes "the importanceof the United Nations peacekeeping operations, including its capability to deploy civil police forces,in promoting stability in post-conflict situations." (3) Policymakers have recognized problems withtheir use and made efforts to deal with them. Among the current issues for Congress are whether to provide for continued improvements to the existing system and whether to build new U.S. and international CivPol capabilities. CivPoladvocates have advanced proposals to (1) facilitate the recruitment and rapid deployment of adequatenumbers of qualified police and related law enforcement personnel to complex post-conflictmissions, and (2) ensure that such missions include personnel with the appropriate training and skillsto handle a range of law enforcement situations. These proposals encompass provisions that wouldstress continued implementation of U.S. and U.N. reform efforts, as well as provisions that wouldreform the existing system. Most important among the reform efforts were two key documents that recommended mechanisms to improve existing CivPol systems and approaches for providing and using CivPolforces. One was the Clinton Administration's February 2000 Presidential Decision Directive 71(PDD-71), which specifically dealt with the law enforcement aspects of peacekeeping operations. (4) While its provisions were left largely unimplemented by the Clinton Administration, (5) the directiveremains in effect under the Bush Administration, which has begun implementing some measures.The other was the United Nations' August 2000 "Brahimi Panel" report, (6) which dealt with problemsof U.N. peacekeeping operations in general, but also contained four specific recommendations toaddress problems with the U.N. civilian police system, particularly in the areas of recruitment,training, and deployment of international civilian police personnel. The United Nations has begunimplementing some of the Brahimi Panel recommendations and other proposed reforms, while othersremain under discussion. Among the proposals recommended by advocates are: (1) the creation of a reserve CivPol force, as could be contemplated under H.R. 1414 for the U.N. and as proposed for theUnited States under H.R. 2616 ; (2) the diversification of international police forces ascurrently constituted, including the establishment of units of police with military skills (i.e.,"constabulary forces") to handle hostile situations such as crowd control (as is suggested for NATOunder H.R. 2616 ; and (3) the creation of more robust civilian response mechanisms, ascontemplated by S. 2127 and related proposals, including a proposal for a "stabilitypackage" of lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and penal experts, in addition to CivPols, to create viablelaw enforcement systems. An important consideration to many policymakers is whetherrecommendations for improving the CivPol mechanisms could reduce reliance on U.S. militaryforces in post-conflict operations or shorten the length of their deployments to such operations. This report will provide a brief synopsis of the evolution of the uses of international police in peacekeeping operations, with a description of the problems encountered. (Appendix A providesa synopsis, in chart form, of many of these operations. Appendix B discusses in more detail thegradual expansion of policing in U.N. and U.S.-led operations during the 1990s.) This report willthen discuss the current U.N., U.S., and European mechanisms for providing CivPols to internationaloperations, recommendations for improving those systems, and the status of their implementation. It will then assess the various approaches that are recommended to resolve continuing problems andprovide options for the U.S. Congress for continued improvements to the system. This report maybe updated if warranted. Note : This is a list of acronyms used two or more times in the text. Acronyms used only once arenot included. The international community has increasingly turned to CivPols to perform a variety offunctions in international peace operations. Between 1994 and 2000, the number of internationalcivilian police participating in U.N. operations (UNCIVPOLs) increased fourfold. Despite a dropfrom that peak, the number of currently deployed UNCIVPOLs is twice what it was nearly ten yearsago. (7) As of February 29, 2004, 4,655 internationalcivilian police, including 476 Americans, wereassisting with law enforcement tasks in the eight U.N. peacekeeping missions with UNCIVPOLcomponents. In addition, several nations, including the United States, continue to provide bilateralassistance, especially training, to indigenous police forces in a variety of post-conflict situations. Some analysts urge the eventual deployment of sizable contingents of international civilian policeto Afghanistan (where the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom are now working torecreate an indigenous police force) to Iraq (where the United States and Jordan are doing the same),and to Haiti. As of February 29, 2004, five UNCIVPOL were deployed to Afghanistan. All U.S. assistance for law enforcement entities abroad is carried out within the context ofSection 660 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended (FAA), adopted in 1975. Except forspecific exempted cases, Section 660 prohibits aid to train, advise, or provide financial support forpolice, prisons, or other law enforcement forces of any foreign government, or for programs ofinternal intelligence or surveillance on behalf of a foreign government. Among the exceptions toSection 660 is one that states that it does not apply to assistance in post-conflict situations. (8) Suchassistance is provided, and the details regarding it are worked out, on a case-by-case basis, as thereis no specific statutory authority to regulate and fund such assistance. (9) International civilian police forces have been used for a variety of purposes and in many situations since at least the late 19th century. [See Appendices A and B.] Since then, police forceswith recruits from one to many nations have been used to monitor and supervise local forces,conduct joint patrols with them, train and advise them, and assist with their restructuring andreformation, including identifying and expelling undesirable members. (The acronym SMART hasbeen used to summarize these functions, i.e. : S upport for human rights, M onitoring, A dvising, R eporting, and T raining.) (10) Sometimes -- particularly recently -- theinternational forces have beenarmed and granted arrest powers (referred to jointly as "executive authority"); usually, they are not. (11) During the past decade, policing in peacekeeping and related operations has evolved through what might be described as five approximate phases of increasing scope and complexity, aimed atestablishing security. These phases have been roughly, but not entirely, sequential and have tendedto build on previous experiences. (As analysts have noted, however, operations need not necessarilybe modeled after the latest operations.) The first two phases of this evolution involved the expansionof U.N. activities and/or mandates from (1) monitoring mandates , which have been a constant ofvirtually all operations, through (2) the addition of training components, beginning in a small, adhoc manner in Cambodia, intensified in El Salvador as part of the police reform effort, and made animportant part of U.S.-led and subsequent U.N. peacekeeping efforts in Somalia and Haiti, and (3)the development of mandates that include substantial reform and restructuring of existing policeinstitutions or the creation of new institutions, as in Somalia and Haiti and later operations. Twosubsequent phases were (4) the addition of specially constituted constabulary units , designedspecifically to operate as such in hostile situations, beginning with Bosnia, and (5) in the operationsin East Timor and Kosovo, the expansion of mandates to provide international police with "executive authority" to bear arms and make arrests. (12) (See Appendix A for a list of UNCIVPOLand other police operations since 1989, and information on their responsibilities and the number ofpolice authorized and/or deployed on these missions, and Appendix B for a narrative account of theevolution of CivPol mandates and activities.) This evolution reflected the international community's growing awareness of the broad range of security needs, and types of assistance required by indigenous police forces in peace operations. Also, as the scope of international interventions has broadened, policymakers and analysts haveincreasingly viewed ensuring public security as the responsibility of the countries and organizationswhich have intervened (to be provided jointly, where possible, with indigenous personnel). At thesame time, policymakers and analysts recognized several important problems. These problemsconcerned the need for the adoption of clear and feasible mandates (which is outside the scope ofthis paper) and the development of standards and procedures for smooth and effectiveimplementation.