Conclusion: Living and Seeing the War Without Immediate Experience

Abstract

Whatever their degree of involvement in the conflict, the First World War resulted in major transformations for all societies. Their Police and Gendarmerie forces provide a unique standpoint to understand the scope of such phenomena—both at “ground level” with individual experience and at the level of States. Pivotal in their contribution at the outbreak of war, law-enforcement forces also played a decisive role in maintaining wartime social stability and regulating transitions in the return to peace. Acting as cogs, their action nonetheless reveals the full mechanisms at work to ensure the rebuilding and reorganisation of destabilised communities.