The cultural mechanisms of trust-building: A case study about trust-building between international and local police working together for a limited amount of time during the EULEX mission in Kosovo from 2011 to 2016

Abstract

The European Union Rule of Law mission in Kosovo (hereafter EULEX) is comprised of international and local police, who work together for a limited period of time, in order to contribute to the rule of law in the post-conflict country of Kosovo. This thesis assumes that there is a need for mutual trust in order for the established cooperation to be effective. However, the divergent cultural backgrounds and beliefs of the involved police officers heavily impact the perception of trust. This research aims to explain what cultural repertoire mechanisms shaped the trust-building process between police from different nationalities during EULEX in Kosovo between 2011 and 2016. The main data collection technique is in-depth individual interviews with selected samples from the Dutch National Police, the Kosovo Police, training institutes, experts, and interpreters.

The holistic mechanism-process-based approach from Tilly and Tarrow is used to explain what cultural repertoire mechanisms shaped the different episodes of this trust-building process. The cultural repertoires perceive the role of culture as an unconsciously existing instinct, a consciously present script, or a strategically chosen toolkit. It is thus assumed that culture is not only present, but is also performed by the international and local police.

The literature review about the trust-building process displayed that the variables language, trust cues, legislation, reputation, and training are significant in the initial or the on-going phase of the trust-building process in police missions. This research analysed how these variable are part of one or more cultural repertoires. Subsequently, their significant toward the particular episodes of the trust-building process was determined. The outcome of the analyses displayed the highly dynamic and complex interrelation between the five variables and their three different functions as cultural repertoires. It were mostly the variables language and trust cues that played a significant in almost all three cultural repertoire mechanisms; and thus shaped trust-building process in the given case-study the most. Even when the significance of the variables reputation, legislation and training was only moderate in comparison to the other variables, they both did contribute greatly to the formation of trusting beliefs in the initial phase of the trust-building process.