Description

CRG Book Launches 18

Koen Vlassenroot ( CRG) in conversation with  Michel Thill

October 21. 2025. 11:00= 12:30 ( Tue) 

3rd Floor John Vincke Room, Technicum 1,  UFO campus Ghent University

The Police, the State and the Congo Cop

Michel Thill

This open access book offers the first full-length, empirical deep-dive into everyday policework in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the same time, its findings go well beyond the DRC and Africa, ultimately providing a new, startlingly nuanced theoretical framework for understanding what police practice and reform efforts tell us about states anywhere in the world.

Following officers from the classroom to the station and the street, Michel Thill offers five narrative-driven chapters rich with historical detail and thick description that show how the police force, as an institution, struggles to coordinate practice with training, coercion with persuasion and reconciliation, and the need to make ends meet with the duty to serve the public. By delving into the convoluted repercussions of police reform, Michel identifies the tensions that shape everyday policework, thereby offering new ways of thinking about police reform while offering practical guidance for practitioners and policymakers.

The book is based on Michel’s PhD in Political Science at Ghent University’s Department of Conflict and Development Studies that he defended in 2021.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Michel Thill has been a member of swisspeace since 2024. As a Senior Program Officer, he contributes his expertise to the Resources, Governance & Conflict program. Sitting at the intersection of policy and everyday practice, his work is interested in security sector reform, governance of urban security and land, and the interplay between global policy and local realities, with a particular focus on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.