Where globalization has been a focus of criminological theorising it has been too readily assumed that northern trends (like neo-liberal punitiveness, community policing, etc.) have a reach across the globe. The neoliberal thesis on penality (Lacey, 2013) is a classic piece of metropolitan theorising, embedded most strongly in the work of Wacquant (2013). This thesis assumes the rest of the world simply followed United States punitive trends. It is mistaken, however, to conceive neoliberalism as a transnational political project of a uniform character (O'Malley, 2014; Sozzo 2015). This is why Jarrett Blaustein’s Speaking Truths to Power is so refreshing. His ethnographic study contrasts two case studies of liberal state-building and ‘policing for democracy’ in the territories of the former Yugoslavia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). In this post-conflict setting, transnational policing programs sponsored by the European Union and the international community involved rolling out top-down policy transfer from so-called ‘best practice’ policing models. The underpinning assumption was that ‘a “democratic” model of policing was necessary for re-establishing general order through BiH and for ultimately establishing and sustaining liberal democratic governing institutions’ (p. 58).
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