Teach them to fish. Analyzing practices of security assistance in international peacekeeping training centers.

Security assistance has and continues to be the focus of considerable investment by international organizations in non-EU countries. Most debates on security assistance rely on the assumption that a peaceful endpoint can be reached if appropriate policies are implemented or if the right conditions are constructed. Framing away from normative evaluations of security assistance programs, the research aims to examine the training implemented in international peacekeeping training centers in the field of peace and security. Building on the peacebuilding and norm diffusion literature, the research analyzes the standards of behavior diffused in the training. The thesis discusses the fragmented and contested nature of norms that aim to build “peace and security” on the African continent, with a focus on practices of contestation and depoliticization as they unfold in training. The research employs a qualitative methodology using a combination of policy analysis and site-intensive techniques of inquiry such as interviews and participant observation. The research was carried out at two international peacekeeping training centers: the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU) in Italy and the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPTC) in Ghana. The two training centers offer training that aims to support the strengthening of African state security institutions on a variety of topics, including human trafficking, responsibility to protect, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration. The research aims to contribute to security studies by analyzing the fragmented and contested character of security assistance and offering new theoretical insights into the knowledge production process that forms the core of security assistance in non-EU countries.