ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by outlining the practical considerations that have led to military personnel being tasked with roles in peace and stability operations that, traditionally, would be squarely in the domain of civilian police. It then discusses both practical and theoretical reasons as to why this is a concerning trend. We argue that the goals of peace and stability operations are more readily achievable if the traditional police-military divide is respected as much as possible. Given this, we suggest that the urge to resign ourselves to the military being the ‘least worst option’ (Keller, 2010) for policing is premature. Instead, we outline some initial suggestions for practical and operationally oriented guidelines for police and military personnel that provide a way of meeting the need for policing in peace and stability operations while remaining faithful to the police-military divide.
