g.s.sinclair@open.ac.uk
I am a Research Associate in the History Department at the Open University. After completing my PhD, I have held lectureships in history at the University of Reading and the University of Leeds.
At the Open University, I am primarily involved with Chris A. Williams in developing a research project that considers the ‘Internationalisation of British Policing’. The aim of this project is a historical approach towards the internationalisation of law enforcement during the last 50 years. We are researching events that range from the deployments of British police to the empire during decolonisation, through to the training of foreign police in the UK, the sustained British engagement in the 1990’s with ‘states in transition’ in Africa and Eastern Europe, and the effects of international experience on the pattern of ‘British’ policing, to the police interventions associated with UN and EU missions and the conflict in the Balkans, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan. This project is interdisciplinary in its approach and closely linked to both the Ferguson Centre and the ICCCR in Social Sciences.
I am also pursuing other research interests that relate closely to this project and am currently preparing a history of police/military relations (1919-1980) for publication as a monograph and articles on police intelligence systems and COIN during the decolonisation era.
‘‘Hong Kong Headaches’, Policing the 1967 Disturbances’ in Hong Kong 1967, Robert Bickers & Ray Yep (eds.) (Hong Kong University Press, forthcoming 2009).
‘The ‘Irish’ Policeman and the Empire; Influencing the Policing of the British Empire-Commonwealth ’ in a Special Issue of Irish Historical Studies - ‘Ireland and the British Empire-Commonwealth’, xxxvii, no. 142 (November, 2008).
With Chris A. Williams: ‘Home and Away, The Cross-Fertilisation between ‘Colonial’ and ‘British’ Policing, 1921-85’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 35, No. 2, (May, 2007), pp. 221-238.
At the End of the Line, Colonial Police Forces and the Imperial Endgame, 1945-1980, (Manchester University Press, 2006).
More information
‘‘Hard-headed, hard-bitten, hard-hitting and courageous men of innate detective ability…’From criminal investigation to political and security policing at end of empire, 1945-1950’ in Police Detectives in History, 1750-1950, Clive Emsley & Haia Shpayer (eds.), (Ashgate, 2006).
Get into a Crack Force and earn £20 a month… The Influence of the Palestine Police upon Colonial Policing, 1921-1948’, European Review of History, Vol. 13, No. 1 (March, 2006), pp. 49-67.
‘From Hunt to Patten: The Thirty Year Debate on Policing Reform, Continuity or Change?’ Proceedings of the RUC Historical Society (Spring, 2000).
‘Sir Arthur Young, the Quintessential English Policeman’, Part I & II. Proceedings of the RUC Historical Society (Winter, 1999).
