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the region, and the persecution of Kosovo Albanians, led to the start of NATO air strikes
against targets in both Serbia and Kosovo.
Meanwhile a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Kosovo Albanians was initiated by
Serbian authorities with thousands dying.
Serbian forces were driven out in the summer of 1999 and the UN took over the
administration of the province, which included policing.

2156 %10(.+%6
T e EU Mission in Kosovo took over from the UN, and is known as EULEX. It is a
rule of law mission, the largest EU mission with some 2200 staff including police officers,
judges, prosecutors, prison and custom officers and of course national advisors, fixers
and language assistants. EULEX has a mandate to mentor and advise senior members
of Kosovo institutions and retains some executive powers for maintenance of public
order, witness and close protection, and the investigation and prosecution of war crimes,
corruption and organised crime.

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My good friend and colleague Nigel Hughes put me in touch with the UK Stabilisation
Unit. T is unit is based within the Department for International Development,
DFID, and comprises members of policing, armed forces, MOD, and the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office. More detail can be found at www.stabilisationunit.gov.uk.
Nigel had completed a mission in Afghanistan and recommended an international
deployment to me. In 2009, the Stabilisation Unit advertised for Inspectors and above to
apply for an international deployment pool, and with the support of my chief officer team
at the time, I was successful. Essentially my CV was matched against mission vacancies
that the UK would support; those that influence and have strategic importance; so after
I had considered and graciously rejected a few offers for postings to places, as one senior
military colleague told me, “Definitely do not volunteer to go there” an ideal opportunity
in Kosovo came my way. +0 /; 1((+%' #6 -15181 21.+%' 4')+10#.
Now, most of us are used to a standard job or promotion selection process, whether &+4'%614#6' 0QXGODGT
that is a presentation, written assessment or interview. T e EU process involved a
telephone interview via conference calling. It was the first time my bedroom had been
converted into an interview cell. I had it all meticulously laid out; the EU Common
Security and Defence Policy and structure, EULEX, and all about me.
In the days leading up to the interview I rehearsed my planned responses, thought
about every possible question I may be asked, but one thing worried me: how on earth do
you deliver an impactive, knock ‘em dead performance over a telephone from the top floor
of a town house on the Derbyshire/Leicestershire border to an interview team sitting 1700
miles away in Pristina? I even practised my introduction: “Hello, Good Afternoon, Hi,
Good Day” or do I try and be smart and greet the panel in Albanian and Serbian, French,
German. No in the end I think it was a panic ridden almost ‘Boris Johnson’ bumbling that
greeted the panel!
I pranced around my interview cell firing off responses left, right and centre. Yes I
understand the chain of command, the challenges of mission life, the name of the mission
and convinced the panel chair, Harry from Colorado, that my English eccentricity would
be perfect for the job. Success – the job was mine.
Next Hostile Environmental and Awareness Training (HEAT). One week on the
Herefordshire/Dyfed-Powys border in a hotel at the edge of the Black Mountains. I think
my bedroom was in Wales and the dining room in England. It was in a beautiful setting
and the course run by former Special Forces operatives, delivered to a mixed delegation of
police and journalists from all over Europe: Channel 4, Al Jazeera, broadsheets and two
Norwegian TV news anchors. What a great experience, like scouting max, trauma first aid,
extreme weather survival, self cartography, actions at roadblocks, coping with kidnap –
although I am still not sure that I could – and of course a pre-deployment medical.
Now, as medicals go this was fairly uneventful except for two things: firstly it happened
in a hotel bedroom; secondly the more personal and intimate parts of the examination
took place by a professional and calming doctor but the size of his hands will stay with