Globalising Security Culture and Knowledge in Practice: Nigeria's Hybrid Model

Public police around the world share certain occupational commonalities, but this does not represent a globalising security culture. Certain norms may appear to facilitate a less ambitious internationalist or transnational culture by modifying police behaviour through processes of socialisation and internalisation, but they do so for instrumental, rather than intrinsic reasons and are limited in their effects. The experience of the Nigeria Police (which is both the target of, and a contributor to, the transnational rescue industry) makes this explicit. This article emphasises the extent to which Nigeria's commitment to the UN policing operations commonly thought to encapsulate a globalising culture is outweighed by domestic concerns. More significantly, the Nigeria Police's distinction between domestic and international practice exemplifies the ways in which intermediary states in the South construct, exercise, and validate hybrid forms of security knowledge. Distinguishing between utilitarian and theoretical forms of knowledge provides an analytical tool for understanding the pragmatic and flexible practices that result.