Reconsidering the process of demilitarization : the case of the Belgian gendarmerie

Reconsidering the process of demilitarization : the case of the Belgian gendarmerie

  This paper addresses the complex relationship between the military and the police by focusing on the process of demilitarization of the police and conceptualising the impact of the military culture and structure on the institutionalisation of the police. On the basis of a case study on the demilitarization of the Belgian gendarmerie (1940-1998) interactions are indicated between the operational and organisational level of the process of demilitarization of the police. These interactions generate challenges for police forces who are trying to take into account the requirements of democratic policing (community policing) in an age of ‘war’ against terrorism, which tends to activate a latent military/traditional style of policing.