Comment: 'Never mind the similarities, focus on the differences': imposition, imitation and intransigence in post-colonial global policing reform

This chapter suggests that the imperial contribution of transnational policing to post-colonial policing is often more partial, less effective, and dependent on local power and authority than some 'grand narrative' views of the significance of globalised policing convey or imply. It shows that the Lusophone police influence in recent times has been underestimated by many and that it continues to play a significant role in the increasingly transnational circulations of policing knowledge and practice. The chapter also shows that while it is often associated with a different model of police reform from many others offered by international agencies and other Western countries, there have also been mistakes of a similar kind in the way reforms have been introduced. The very notion that the programs and resources come from dominant Western countries and that they are in some sense imposed on receiving countries conforms neatly with critical understandings of interventionism and past colonial practices.