Gendarmerie

The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers encompass arrest and the use of force legitimized by the state via the monopoly on violence. The term is most commonly associated with the police forces of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from the military and other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing. Police forces are usually public sector services, funded through taxes.

Law enforcement is only part of policing activity. Policing has included an array of activities in different situations, but the predominant ones are concerned with the preservation of order. In some societies, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, these developed within the context of maintaining the class system and the protection of private property. Police forces have become ubiquitous and a necessity in complex modern societies. However, their role can sometimes be controversial, as they may be involved to varying degrees in corruption, brutality, and the enforcement of authoritarian rule.

The National Guard of Ukraine (NGU; Ukrainian: Національна гвардія України, romanized: Natsionalna hvardiia Ukrainy, IPA: [nɐts⁽ʲ⁾ioˈnɑlʲnɐ ˈɦwɑrd⁽ʲ⁾ijɐ ʊkrɐˈjinɪ]; abbr. НГУ/NHU [ˌɛnɦeˈu]) is the Ukrainian national gendarmerie and internal military force. It is part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, responsible for public security. Originally created as an agency under the direct control of the Verkhovna Rada on 4 November 1991, following Ukrainian independence, it was later disbanded and merged into the Internal Troops of Ukraine in 2000 by President Leonid Kuchma as part of a "cost-saving" scheme. Following the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, amidst the Russian intervention, the National Guard was re-established, and the Internal Troops were disbanded.

The purpose of the National Guard is to serve as a military unit with law enforcement powers. Its mission is to ensure state security, protect state borders (supporting the State Border Service), participate in activities to neutralize paramilitary armed groups, terrorist organizations, organized groups and criminal organizations, protect critical infrastructure such as Ukraine's nuclear power plants, diplomatic missions, and buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The NGU has sent personnel to UN peacekeeping missions. During peacetime the National Guard focuses on civilian public security, combating organized crime and controlling civil unrest. During wartime the National Guard can be mobilized as a regular military force and take part in combat operations alongside the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which it has done during the war in Donbas and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Security forces are statutory organizations with internal security mandates. In the legal context of several countries, the term has variously denoted police and military units working in concert, or the role of irregular military and paramilitary forces (such as gendarmerie) tasked with public security duties.

The Carabinieri are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign policing duties. It is one of Italy's main law enforcement agencies, alongside the Polizia di Stato and the Guardia di Finanza. As with the Guardia di Finanza but in contrast to the Polizia di Stato, the Carabinieri are a military force. As the fourth branch of the Italian Armed Forces, they come under the authority of the Ministry of Defence; for activities related to inland public order and security, they functionally depend on the Ministry of the Interior. In practice, there is a significant overlap between the jurisdiction of the Polizia di Stato and Carabinieri, and both of them are contactable through 112, the European Union's Single Emergency number. Unlike the Polizia di Stato, the Carabinieri have responsibility for policing the military, and a number of members regularly participate in military missions abroad.

They were originally founded as the police force of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the forerunner of the Kingdom of Italy. During the process of Italian unification, the Carabinieri were appointed as the "First Force" of the new national military organization. Although the Carabinieri assisted in the suppression of opposition during the rule of Benito Mussolini, they were also responsible for his downfall and many units were disbanded during World War II by Nazi Germany, which resulted in large numbers of Carabinieri joining the Italian resistance movement.

The Gendarmerie General Command (Turkish: Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı) is the national gendarmerie force of the Republic of Turkey. It is a service branch of the Turkish Ministry of Interior responsible for the maintenance of the public order in areas that fall outside the jurisdiction of police forces (generally in rural areas), as well as assuring internal security along with carrying out other specific duties assigned to it by certain laws and regulations. The Commander of the Gendarmerie reports to the Minister of the Interior.

The Gendarmerie has its roots in the Ottoman Empire military law enforcement organization "Subaşı" (later known as the "Zaptiye"). A similar, earlier force called "Şurta" existed during the medieval Seljuq Empire.

The European Gendarmerie Force, also known by its acronym EUROGENDFOR, is a European rapid reaction force comprising elements of several European gendarmerie forces. It is currently integrated with eleven countries: seven member states France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Poland and Romania, one partner Lithuania and three observers: Turkey, Moldova and Ukraine. EUROGENDFOR is responsible for carrying out policing duties within the scope of crisis management operations.

This flexible tool can act under military command or civil authority to guarantee public security, and maintenance of public order in crisis management operations. EUROGENDFOR is first and foremost, at the disposal of the EU, but it could also respond to requests by the UN, OSCE, NATO, and other international organisations or ad-hoc coalitions; its operational deployment requires a unanimous decision to be taken by Member States.

Internal troops, sometimes alternatively translated as interior troops or interior ministry forces, are a paramilitary and gendarmerie-like law enforcement services, which are found mostly in the post-Soviet states, primarily Russia. Internal troops are subordinated to the interior minister (and interior ministries) of their respective countries.

Perhaps the most prominent example since the Soviet era have been the Internal Troops of Russia (until 2016). Other countries that have had such forces include: Ukraine (until 2014), Georgia (until 2004), Kazakhstan (until 2014), Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria (until 1991), Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. Mongolian internal troops are officially a reserve force in the Mongolian Armed Forces.

The Italian Armed Forces (Italian: Forze armate italiane, pronounced [ˈfɔrtse arˈmaːte itaˈljaːne]) encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy and the Italian Air Force. A fourth branch of the armed forces, known as the Carabinieri, take on the role as the nation's military police and are also involved in missions and operations abroad as a combat force. Despite not being a branch of the armed forces, the Guardia di Finanza and Polizia di Stato is organized along military lines.

These five forces comprise a total of 340,885 men and women with the official status of active military personnel, of which 167,057 are in the Army, Navy and Air Force. The President of Italy heads the armed forces as the President of the High Council of Defence established by article 87 of the Constitution of Italy. According to article 78, the Parliament has the authority to declare a state of war and vest the powers to lead the war in the Government.