When Gendarmes meet Gendarmes. Belgian Gendarmes and their Foreigner Colleagues during the Interwar

This paper aims to study the way of contacts and cooperations between western european gendarmeries in the interwar period. Focusing on Belgian gendarmerie, we analyze official and unofficial relations between military police forces (French and Dutch one's). With the gendarmeries archives, our objective is to highlight, on the ground, in the units, causes, chronology and practices of contacts between gendarmes in the border areas, and in hieararchy. We're also interested in stakes of cooperations and in the consequences of this relationships. How do they take part in circulation of knowledge and practices into gendarmeries firstly, and secondly, how do they take part in gendarmeries transformations? The interest of interwar period is obvious, because of gendarmerie's grows, but also because of social and political tensions, on one side, because of structuration of official International police cooperation during this period, on the other. Consequently, it can be stimulating ton confront this well-know and structured police cooperation with a more informal one's