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10 - The Colonial Origins of Policing

The ‘Domestic Effect’ in the UK and the US

from Part II - Historical Sociology and the Imperial Fundaments of International Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2023

By
Julian Go
Edited by
Klaus Schlichte  and
Stephan Stetter
Klaus Schlichte
Affiliation:
Universität Bremen
Stephan Stetter
Affiliation:
Universität der Bundeswehr München
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Summary

The so-called ‘civil police’ which originated in London and then spread to the US and the rest of the world has been a crucial institution for maintaining the international order. This is because the civil police, unlike the army, is a coercive regime meant for ‘citizens’ rather than ‘foreigners’ or ‘subjects’. The civil police regulates ‘domestic’ space, while the military is oriented to ‘foreign’ or ‘international’ space. This essay examines the origins of this important institution in the United Kingdom and the United States and reveals its colonial genealogy. The first civil police, the London Metropolitan Police, founded in the nineteenth century, was modelled after a colonial counter-insurgency force, the Irish Constabulary. In the United States, the civil police was initially modelled after the London police but later, in the early twentieth century, appropriated a series of techniques and tactics from America’s colonial regime in the Philippines. The strategic operation of both civil police institutions has been to draw upon the colonial site while covering up its colonial counter-insurgency and militaristic origins.

Keywords

colonialismmilitarizationmilitarypoliceGlobal Historical Sociology
Type
Chapter
Information
The Historicity of International Politics
Imperialism and the Presence of the Past
 , pp. 208 - 224
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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