Doctrine and Procedures for the Employment of The Multinational Specialised Units (MSU), The Carabinieri's GHQ, 2003:

The Carabinieri have experimented the original formula of the Multinational Specialised Unit (MSU) in the Balkans. The MSU is a police-type force specialised in military actions, attracting the attention of the International Community as a particularly efficient unit able to meet the most modern requirements from operations in reply to crisis.

Therefore, the Carabinieri have gained unique experience, becoming the reference organisation in the specific sector at international level, ensuring Italy the task of Lead Nation (LN).Legislative decree nr. 297 of 5th October 2000, referring to the reorganisation of the Carabinieri, mentions, among the other things, the military tasks including the participation in military actions abroad. With regard to that, Article 5, paragraph 2, establishes that the Carabinieri performs, in addition to the traditional tasks of fighting actions and military police, the special operation of “providing security and orderly life in common in the concerned action areas” in the framework of “operations for the maintenance and re-achievement of peace and the international security”. For a better comprehension of such special task, reference is to be made to article I, par. I, of the decree stating the nature and duty of the Force, which is a military Institution with armed force status in permanent service of public order security and with the general task of police. Thus, Article 5, par. 2, states the performance of a new and general military function, which can be defined of “ordinary police”. Such function is normatively different from the military police, which is ruled by article 6 of the decree, and has also to be conceptually and practically separated from the latter. These two functions do not replace each other, but integrate reciprocally. The law also implicitly distinguishes the operative instruments that the two functions are responsible for.

Therefore, the performance of the aforesaid function and the autonomous structure that it is based on are governed by the law, but also are the most efficient and effective method of full application of it.
More at the link. This document provides much of the doctrinal basis for the newly-activated European Gendarmerie Force's (EGF) rapid-deployment force at Vicenza, near the the 173rd Airborne Brigade's HQ. Para-military police forces oriented towards SSOs and COIN are becoming a growth industry in the EU.