Adaptation, resistance and a (Re)turn to functionalism: the case of the Bosnian police restructuring process (2003–2008)

Abstract

This article analyzes the police restructuring process in Bosnia, and more specifically the role of the European Union in this process, to understand what, and how, different practices, routines and patterns of resistance influenced the timing, direction and outcome of this reform process. It provides a new angle to understand the final outcome of police restructuring by looking at actors' preferences, positions within the field of Security Sector Reform (SSR) and their strategies. The main argument is that a process of 'muddling through' was created by the combination of adaptation and resistance techniques employed by international, European and local actors in the broader police reform dynamics. By empirically demonstrating how and why specific practices of key actors influenced the policy-making process, this article provides a preliminary framework to reassess SSR activities as part of a field of practice, to be analyzed through a sociological lens.

Reclaiming the local in EU peacebuilding: Effectiveness, ownership, and resistance

“…Deficient local ownership, one way or another, has been registered not only in places where the EU is well known for its executive interventions, heavy footprint, and trusteeship governance as in Bosnia (Tolksdorf, 2014;Vandemoortele, 2012) and Kosovo (Collantes-Celador & Juncos, 2011;Kappler & LemayHébert, 2015;Qehaja, 2017). The EU's record on local ownership has also been less than satisfactory in most other interventions launched further afield, for example, in Afghanistan (Larivé, 2012, p. 194), Congo (Rayroux & Wilén, 2014), Georgia (Freire & Simão, 2013, p. 467), or Somalia (Oksamytna, 2011).…”

Defense sector reform in the Western Balkans – different approaches and different tools

“…It has proved difficult to implement reforms in a country where the political system is extremely complex and where most of the power is decentralized (Bieber 2006). In spite of these difficulties, the Bosnian authorities have taken important steps towards Euro-Atlantic integration, and defense reform is often highlighted as the most successful reform in the country after the war (Hadzovic 2007, Aybet and Bieber 2011, Hadzovic et al 2011, Vandemoortele 2012.…”

“…SSR, as we know it today, first emerged after the end of the Cold War, with the transformation of the former communist countries in Eastern Europe. NATO and the European Union (EU) were among the first to apply SSR policies with their enlargement processes in the 1990s (DCAF 2006, DursunOzkanca andVandemoortele 2012). Among the bilateral donors, the UK has been one of the pioneers, with the support to Sierra Leone as one of their success stories (Horne et al 2006).…”

EU security sector reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Reform or resist?

“…Moreover, SSR has been theorized from different perspectives, from sociological approaches (Blaustein, 2014) to organizational theory to Foucauldian, and postcolonial studies (Eriksson Baaz & Stern, 2017). Yet, only a handful of SSR studies have examined resistance (e.g., Lemay-Hébert, 2014;Rayroux & Wilén, 2014;Vandemoortele, 2012). Even in these cases, they have not moved beyond the power/resistance dichotomy and have failed to note how resistance is linked to power and how it can simultaneously undermine and reinforce domination practices.…”