gendarmerie

thumb|Members of Italy's Carabinieri on public order duties in [[Florence]] thumb|upright|A Turkish Gendarmerie General Command trooper on guard at [[Topkapı Palace in Istanbul]]

A gendarmerie () is a military or paramilitary force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term gendarme () is derived from the medieval French expression , which translates to 'men-at-arms' (). In France and some Francophone nations, the gendarmerie is a branch of the armed forces that is responsible for internal security in parts of the territory (primarily in rural areas and small towns in the case of France), with additional duties as military police for the armed forces. It was introduced to several other Western European countries during the Napoleonic conquests. In the mid-twentieth century, a number of former French mandates and colonial possessions (such as Lebanon, Syria, the Ivory Coast and the Republic of the Congo) adopted a gendarmerie after independence.