A gendarmerie or gendarmery (pronounced /ʒɒnˈdɑːmɜːriː/) is a military body charged with police duties among civilian populations. The members of such a body are called gendarmes. The term maréchaussée (or marshalcy) can also be used (e.g. Royal Marechaussee) but is now uncommon.

The word "gendarme" comes from Old French gens d'armes, meaning men-at-arms. Historically, during the Late Medieval to the Early Modern period, the term referred to a heavily armoured cavalryman of noble birth, primarily serving in the French army (see:Gendarme (historical)). The word gained policing connotations after the French Revolution when the Maréchaussée of the Ancien Regime was renamed the Gendarmerie. Before this, a gendarmerie was known as a maréchaussée (marshalcy).

In the United Kingdom, there is a body called the Her Majesty's Bodyguard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms. "Gentlemen at Arms" is in fact an almost perfect etymological equivalent to the term "gendarme". This body is, however, purely ceremonial, and is not considered a gendarmerie.

Historically the spelling in English is gendarmery, but the French spelling gendarmerie is now more common. The Oxford English Dictionary still uses gendarmery^[1] as the principal spelling while the Merriam-Webster uses gendarmerie^[2] as the principal spelling.

These forces are normally titled "gendarmerie", but gendarmeries may bear other titles, for instance Carabiniers in Italy and Chile, or Civil Guard in Spain.

Some forces which are no longer considered military retain the title "gendarmerie" for reasons of tradition. For instance, the French language title of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is Gendarmerie royale du Canada (GRC) (i.e. Royal Gendarmerie of Canada) because it was traditionally a military force (although not part of the army) and because it retains the honorific status of a military force. The Argentine Gendarmerie is a military force (in terms of training, identity and public perception, and it was involved in combat in the Falklands War), but for legal purposes is a "security force", not an "armed force", because this is necessary under Argentine law in order to allow jurisdiction over the civilian population.

Since every country uses institutional terms such as "gendarmerie" as it wishes, there are cases in which the term may become confusing. For instance, the Swiss cantonal "gendarmeries" are not military, and are in fact the uniformed police of French-speaking cantons. In Chile, confusingly, the word "gendarmerie" can for historic reasons be used to refer to the prison service, while as previously mentioned the actual gendarmerie force is called the "carabineros".

As a result of their duties within the civilian population, gendarmeries are sometimes described as "para-military" rather than "military" forces (essentially in the English-speaking world where policing is rarely associated with military forces) although this description rarely corresponds to their official status and capabilities. Gendarmes are often deployed in military situations, sometimes in their own country, and often in humanitarian deployments abroad.

A gendarmerie may come under the authority of a ministry of defence (e.g. France) or a ministry of the interior (e.g. Argentina), or even both at once (e.g. Chile or Italy). Generally there is some coordination between a ministry of defence and a ministry of the interior over use of gendarmes.

Gendarmeries are police services, but in many countries (e.g. France) the word "police" normally implies civilian police. Gendarmeries are military police, however the term "military police" can be misleading, since in English it carries strong implications of policing within the military ("provost" policing), which is not the basic purpose of a gendarmerie (although in many countries it is a task which gendarmes carry out). In countries where the gendarmerie and civilian police co-exist there may exist rivalries and tensions between the forces. There may also be different reputations, with the gendarmeres generally having a better reputation than civilian police.

In some cases, a police service's military links are ambiguous and it can be unclear whether a force should be defined as a gendarmerie or not, (e.g. Mexico's Policia Federal Preventiva, Brazilian Polícia Militar, or the former South African Police until 1994). Services such as the Italian Guardia di Finanza would not normally be defined as a gendarmerie (but at times might be) since the service is both of ambiguous military status and does not have general policing duties in the civilian population. In Russia, the Interior Troops are military units with quasi-police duties.

In comparison to civilian police forces, gendarmeries may provide a more disciplined force whose military capabilities (e.g. armored group in France with armored personnel carriers and heavy armoured cars with 90 mm cannons) make them more capable of dealing with armed groups and with all types of violence. On the other hand, the necessity of a more stringent selection process for military service, especially in terms of physical prowess and health, restricts the pool of potential recruits in comparison to those a civilian police force could select from.

Gendarmeries may also provide various military or police services. For instance in France, the gendarmerie is in charge of crowd and riot control (Gendarmerie Mobile), counter-terrorism and hostage rescue (GIGN and EPIGN), maritime surveillance, police at sea and coast guard (Gendarmerie maritime), control and security at airports and air traffic police (Gendarmerie des transports aériens), official buildings guard, honorary services and protection of the President (Garde Républicaine), mountain rescue (Peloton de Gendarmerie de Haute Montagne) and security of nuclear weapons sites.

Gendarmes play an important role re-establishing law and order in conflict areas, a task which is suited to their purpose, training and capabilities. Gendarmeries are widely used in peacekeeping operations, for instance in the former Yugoslavia.

In Haiti, during the rebellion of 2004, brutal armed gangs took over much of the country. The capital city, Port-au-Prince, was particularly chaotic, and law and order broke down. In view of the nature of the violence, the international intervention force responding to the crisis included substantial numbers of French gendarmes, apparently on the insistence of the other countries contributing to the force.

The absence of any gendarmerie in allied forces in Iraq at the time of the fall of Baghdad contributed to both widespread disorder and the creation of the violent situation which continues today. The fall of Baghdad in April 2003 saw the outbreak of disorder, including looting, violence and the settling of old sectarian and tribal grudges. The initial absence of Iraqi police services contributed to the disorder, and US Army and Marine personnel in the city were not particularly trained for the task of policing and re-establishing law and order. The immediate disorder created a momentum of violence that benefited the insurgency and facilitated its operations, and gave a great boost to the morale and recruitment of insurgent forces, as well as allowing the creation of heavily-armed criminal organisations. Subsequently, the coalition forces included Italian Carabinieri.

The use of military organisations to police civilian populations is common to many time periods and cultures. Although it cannot be considered a French concept, the French gendarmerie has been the most influential model of such an organisation.

Many countries that were once under French influence have a gendarmerie. For instance, both Belgium and Austria had gendarmeries through Napoleonic influence, but both these gendarmeries, have merged with the civil police, in 2001 and 2005 respectively. Many former French colonies, especially in Africa, also have gendarmeries.

A common gendarmerie symbol is a flaming grenade, which was first used as a gendarmerie symbol by the French.

• Algeria: Gendarmerie Nationale (El Dark El Watani)
• Argentina: Gendarmería Nacional Argentina
• Benin: Gendarmerie
• Brazil: Polícia Militar (a separate force in each state; debatable whether they constitute a gendarmerie)
• Bulgaria: Zhandarmeriya (Жандармерия)
• Burkina Faso: Gendarmerie
• Cameroon: Gendarmerie
• Canada: Royal Canadian Mounted Police (civilian status)
• Central African Republic: Gendarmerie
• Chad: Gendarmerie
• Chile: The Carabiniers of Chile
• Colombia: Colombian National Police
• Comoros: Gendarmerie
• Congo: Gendarmerie
• Djibouti: Gendarmerie
• European Gendarmerie Force
• France: Gendarmerie Nationale
• Gabon: Gendarmerie
• Guinea: Gendarmerie
• Hungary: Rendészeti Biztonsági Szolgálat
• India: Indian Paramilitary Forces (debatable)
  • Assam Rifles: 40,000 personnel in 31 battalions commanded by a Lieutenant-General
  • Border Security Force: 180,000 personnel
  • Central Industrial Security Force: 90,000 personnel
  • Central Reserve Police Force: 165,000 personnel in 200 battalions
    • Rapid Action Force - a 10 battalion semi-independent part of the CRPF trained to respond to sectarian violence. The Anti-Riot Police of the Indian Union.
  • Indo-Tibetan Border Police - 12,000
  • Rashtriya Rifles: 40,000 personnel
• Iraq: National Police (not to be confused with civilian Iraqi Police Service, although at present both are highly militarised)
• Israel: Israel Border Police
• Italy: Carabinieri (Carabiniers)
• Ivory Coast: Gendarmerie
• Madagascar: Gendarmerie
• Mali: Gendarmerie
• Mauritania: Gendarmerie
• Mexico: Policia Federal Preventiva (PFP) (civilian status, but largely composed of military personnel transferred en masse from the Mexican army's 3rd Military Police Brigade)
• Republic of Moldova: Trupele de Carabinieri
• Monaco: Carabiniers
• Morocco: Gendarmerie Royale
• Netherlands: Koninklijke Marechaussee
• Niger: Gendarmerie
• Poland: Żandarmeria Wojskowa
• Portugal: Guarda Nacional Republicana
• Romania: Jandarmeria Română
• Rwanda: Gendarmerie
• San Marino: Gendarmeria
• Senegal: Gendarmerie
• Serbia: Žandarmerija (Жандармерија) (1860–1945; reformed 2001)
• Spain: Guardia Civil
• Switzerland: teh Swiss Gendarmerie are the uniformed police of the French Cantons.
• Togo: Gendarmerie
• Turkey: Jandarma
• Vatican City: Gendarmeria

• Albania: Xhandarmëria
• Austria: Bundesgendarmerie (1849–2005)
• Belgium: Gendarmerie/Rijkswacht (civilian status from 1991; merged with federal police in 2001)
• Czechoslovakia: Československé četnictvo (1918-1939)
• Cretan Gendarmerie
• Denmark: Grænsegendarmeriet (1838–1958), De Blå Gendarmer (1885–1897)
• Germany: Gendarmerie or Landjäger in some territories until the mid-20th century, Federal Border Guard (Bundesgrenzschutz) until 1994
• Greece: chorofilaki merged in 1984 with astinomia poleon and formed the current Greek national police elliniki astinomia
• Hungary: Csendőrség (until 1945), after the change of the regime in 1989, a gendarmerie-type police force within the frameworks of the Hungarian National Police: Rendészeti Biztonsági Szolgálat
• Italian East Africa - Italian African Police
• Italian Somaliland: Somalia Gendarmerie (British military administration, WWII)
• Japan: Kempeitai (literally, corps of law soldiers), established in 1881 as a French-style gendarmerie, and disbanded in 1945.
• Luxembourg: Gendarmerie Grand-Ducale (merged with police in 2000)
• Mexico: 1862–1914: Rural Guard (Spanish: Guardia Rural) commonly known as Rurales
• Palestine (British Mandate): Palestine Gendarmerie
• Russian Empire: Special Corps of Gendarmes (1836–1917)
• US Forces in West Germany: United States Constabulary (1946–1952)

• Military Aid to the Civil Power
• Paramilitary
• Military police
• National Guard
• constabulary
• People's Armed Police
• Internal Troops
• Association of the European and Mediterranean Police Forces and Gendarmeries with Military Status
• fr:Chapeau de Gendarme