Derek Lutterbeck

Policing Migration in the Mediterranean

Over recent years, there has been growing concern in European countries with irregular migration and other – supposedly related – transnational challenges from across the Mediterranean, which have come to be seen both as a security risk as well as a humanitarian challenge. In response, European countries have been stepping up their efforts to police their Mediterranean borders. This has involved both an increasing militarization of migration control in the Mediterranean, in the sense of the deployment of semi-military and military forces and hardware in the prevention of migration by sea, and an intensification of law enforcement co-operation between the countries north and south of the Mediterranean. This article discusses the evolution of these policing activities in and across the Mediterranean, as well as some of its perverse side effects, such as the growing involvement of human smugglers, and the diversion of the migratory flows towards other, usually further and more dangerous, routes across the Mediterranean sea.

Between Police and Military: The New Security Agenda and the Rise of Gendarmeries

The differentiation between internal and external security, and between police and military, has been a core principle of the modern nationstate. A distinctive feature of the security landscape of the post-Cold War era, however, is that the dividing line between internal and external security has become increasingly blurred — a consequence of, inter alia, the emergence of a growing number of transnational risks and challenges. This article sheds light on a thus far somewhat neglected aspect of this convergence between the realms of internal and external security, or crime and war: the growing significance of intermediary, i.e. gendarmerie-type, or paramilitary, security forces. The main argument advanced in the following is that the post-Cold War period has witnessed not only the emergence of challenges which defy the distinction between internal and external security, but also the ascendance of agencies which are located between internal and external security forces. This development is exemplified by a discussion of two major areas of the contemporary security agenda, that of border control, where gendarmeries are being mobilized to counter various transnational challenges to security, and that of peace support operations, where they are playing an increasingly important role in post-war reconstruction efforts.

Blurring the Dividing Line: The Convergence of Internal and External Security in Western Europe

Abstract A distinctive feature of the security landscape in western Europe of the post-Cold War era is that the dividing line between internal and external security has become increasingly obsolete—mainly as a consequence of the growing importance of transnational as well as other challenges to security which defy the distinction between domestic and international security. This article examines this convergence of internal and external security agendas from the perspective of the coercive apparatus of western European countries, pointing to a militarisation and externalisation of policing, and an internalisation and ‘policisation’ of soldiering: while police forces are taking on military characteristics, and are extending their activities beyond the borders of the state, military forces are turning to internal security missions, and are adopting certain police features. Moreover, agencies which have traditionally been located at the interface between police and military forces, i.e. gendarmerie-type or paramilitary forces, are assuming an increasingly important role.

Arab Uprisings, Armed Forces, and Civil–Military Relations

Since late 2010, an unprecedented wave of protests demanding greater political freedoms, and in several countries even regime change, has swept across much of the Arab world. In Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, long-standing autocrats have been toppled, and in other countries of the region seemingly well-established authoritarian regimes also appeared increasingly shaky in the face of growing opposition movements. The aim of this article is to examine the role of the armed forces in these popular uprisings. While military forces have been key actors in these Arab uprisings, they have responded quite differently across the region to prodemocracy movements, ranging from openness to protest movements, to internal fracturing, to firm support for the regime in power. This article argues that these differences can be explained with reference to different forms of civil–military relations and different characteristics of the military apparatus. It claims in particular that the degree of institutionalization of the armed forces and their relationship to society at large can account for the divergent responses to pro-reform movements.

Migrants, weapons and oil: Europe and Libya after the sanctions

Long shunned by Western countries for its support of terrorist activities, Libya has, over recent years, become an increasingly important partner of European countries in a number of key policy fields. This article examines the rapprochement between Europe and Libya in three areas that have been of particular interest to European Union (EU) countries: immigration control, military cooperation, and collaboration in the energy field. In all of these important policy domains, there has been a significant rise in cooperation between European countries and Libya over recent years. While there has been some debate and criticism within the EU regarding the acceptability of collaborating with the former outlaw state, given its poor human rights record, such criticism has been largely confined to the military (and nuclear) field, whereas the deepening collaboration with Libya in the area of immigration control seems largely acceptable to EU countries. As Libya is playing an increasingly crucial role in several areas that are amongst the EUs main security (and commercial) interests in the Mediterranean region, there has generally been little, if any, willingness on the part of European countries to raise human rights issues in their relationships with Libya.

Tool of rule: the Tunisian police under Ben Ali

Tunisia under its long-time ruler Zine Abidine Ben Ali was considered a police state par excellence. However, while the role of the Tunisian police as a key pillar of Ben Alis authoritarian regime has been commonly acknowledged, analyses of the systemic or structural features of the countrys internal security apparatus have thus far been rather limited. This article examines the main characteristics of the Tunisian police system and their relationship to Ben Alis autocratic rule. These include its opacity and lack of formal regulation, its instrumentalisation by the central power, the broad and politicised definition of police functions, the combination of centralisation and fragmentation of the police, as well as its permeation with cronyism and corruption, all of which were instrumental in sustaining the Ben Ali regime.

The West and Russia in the Mediterranean: Towards a Renewed Rivalry?

While Russia during the Yeltsin period was largely relegated to a spectator role in the Mediterranean, under Vladimir Putin it has emerged as an increasingly significant player in the region. In particular in the energy and military sectors, Russia has shown a renewed interest in the Mediterranean and also stepped up its efforts to establish closer relationships with the countries of the southern shores of the Mediterranean sea. This in turn has been of considerable concern to Western, and in particular European, countries, which at least to some extent have seen Russias growing activism in the Mediterranean as a challenge to their interests. As a result, there now appears to be a renewed rivalry between Western countries and Russia in the region – rivalry predominantly over oil and gas supplies, as well as military cooperation, in particular arms sales, with the countries south of the Mediterranean. This renewed, but transformed, geopolitical contest between East and West seems to have been, at least to some extent, an empowering development for the countries along the southern rim of the Mediterranean, enhancing their leverage both vis-à-vis Western countries and Russia.