Langholtz offers training advice to senior DRC police officials
Campus visit Commissioner Freddy Yoka E-Ikotama, Professor Harvey Langholtz and Colonel Baudouin Mpiana pose for a photo near the Wren Building on Thursday. Langholtz took the two Democratic Republic of Congo police representatives on a tour of the historic campus. The trio also met to discuss police training efforts in the DRC. Photo by Erin Zagursky
Two senior representatives of the National Police of the Democratic Republic of Congo – and members of the International Police Cooperation Service -- visited the William & Mary campus on Thursday to meet with Psychology Professor Harvey Langholtz.
Police Colonels Baudouin Mpiana and Freddy Yoka E-Ikotama met with Langholtz to discuss various police-training methods. Langholtz is a specialist in the psychology of peacekeeping and peacekeeping training.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is recovering from years of internal conflict, and Mpiana, E-Ikotama and Langholtz all recognize the importance of establishing an effective civil police force as part of the transition from the chaos and anarchy of war to the stability and security that are essential for civil society to flourish, said Langholtz.
In addition to developing its own police force, the DRC has been called upon to deploy police on United Nations Peacekeeping Missions in Haiti, the Ivory Coast and other troubled regions.
During the visit, the three discussed how to best develop a training program that would prepare police from the DRC to properly perform in the field. Mpiana and E-Ikotama invited Langholtz to come to Kinshasa, DRC, to help them establish their own police-training academy. In addition, the three strolled William & Mary’s historic campus, and Langholtz told his guests of the founding of Jamestown and Williamsburg and the establishment of William & Mary.
Langholtz is well known in the area of training peacekeepers. He is the co-editor of the Journal of International Peacekeeping and author of the book The Psychology of Peacekeeping. He is also the series editor for 25 self-paced courses designed to train peacekeepers from the United Nations, African Union, European Union and other organizations. Many of the courses have been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic, and are used worldwide.
Langholtz will be on leave from the university during the upcoming academic year to permit him to work fulltime on the training of peacekeepers and to visit peacekeeping training centers and peacekeeping missions around the world.