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1. Southern Sudan - Economic Security and Independence - A contradiction of Terms?

Author:
William Morrell
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
This paper will provide an overview of the historical, political and economic situation in Southern Sudan in the run up towards its referendum on independence in January 2011. There is a strong sense that the South will vote for secession without full cognisance of the implications for its longer term peace and prosperity. The paper will review the correlates of war onset identified in contemporary research and assess their applicability to Southern Sudan at this important juncture. It will look for mitigating factors and explore strategies for securing the economy as a prerequisite to longer term peace and economic viability.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Sudan and Alabama

2. Forensic Sector Reform: A Missing Piece of the Security and Justice Sector Reform

Author:
Alan G. Robinson and Myriam H.C. Fillaud
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
This paper argues for the inclusion of Forensic Sector Reform (FSR) in any major Justice and Security Sector Reform (JSSR) program implemented in post conflict settings. It describes what is meant by FSR and why it is necessary to include it into JSSR programs. The paper analyses the procedural interconnectivity between justice institutions, emphasizing on the key role of the Forensic Sector within the criminal justice system. It discusses the consequences of ignoring this sector on any JSSR program. It provides a list of basic recommendations for FSR implementation in the field. Finally, it concludes that in order to effectively support the delivery of justice and truth in post-conflicts situations and play a basic role in consolidating stabilization and recovery, the mandate of FSR experts could strongly benefit from having corrective powers.

3. Global Environmental Change and Human Security

Author:
Shawn Donohue
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
Global Environmental Change and Human Security is a volume edited by Richard A Matthew, Jon Barnett, Bryan McDonald, and Karen L. O’Brien, which compiles the most recent academic debates surrounding the linkages between global environmental change and human security. Adding the human security dimension to climate change, or as referred to throughout this volume, global environmental change, connects the issues and challenges faced at the individual, state, and global level as environmental change not only impacts people’s lives and options but also puts pressure on governments in many fragile states and post-conflict states. The link between access to natural resources and poverty requires that academics and practitioners begin to look at the way in which environmental challenges may play a role in future conflicts.
Topic:
Human Rights

4. The Co-Learning Approach to Capacity-Building and Training for Security Sector Reform Practitioners - Including a Toolkit of Ten Co-learning Applications

Author:
David M. Law
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
Security Sector Reform (SSR) is a complex, technical and highly political subject that is generally addressed under difficult circumstances. Set in a unique environment – characterised by the convergence of donor interests and recipient requirements; post-conflict situations, transitional periods or developing countries; adult participants with clear case-specific knowledge and experiences to share; and the need to carry out concrete reform programmes – SSR capacity-building and training activities demand a distinctive approach. The co-learning approach described in this article addresses these challenges as educational opportunities that can lead to positive learning outcomes for participants and facilitators alike, at the same time as they can provide practical support for ongoing SSR processes.
Topic:
Security and Reform

5. Oil Resources, Militancy, and the Post-Amnesty Challenges in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

Author:
J. Tochukwu Omenma
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
This paper argues that the exclusionary system of the indigenous people of the Niger Delta from the production and the distribution of oil resources is a factor that drives the militancy in the Niger Delta. The conceptual background to this argument is based on the analysis of the unmet demands of the Niger Delta people, which is cashed in on by the politicians and the youths to disrupt social order. The amnesty programme, as implemented by the government, is considered palliative if placed side by side with the critical demands of the oil communities. This paper identifies some technical problems of the post amnesty programme, which constitute a challenge to sustainable peace. However, the author concludes that the main sources of threat to the fragile peace in the region are the non-involvement of the oil communities in the rehabilitation process; the revenue derivation percent; and the rebellious character of Henry Oka's faction of MEND. To mitigate conflict in the long run depends on the capacity of President Jonathan Goodluck to mobilize material and human resources to improve on the lives of the Niger Delta people.
Topic:
Oil
Political Geography:
Nigeria

6. Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Insecure Environments: Learning from Afghanistan

Author:
Mark Sedra, Major Gen (ret.) Andrew Mackay, and Geoff Burt
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
The uneven impact of security sector reform (SSR) in Afghanistan, despite nearly a decade-long commitment and billions of dollars invested, demonstrates the immense and perhaps insurmountable challenge of effectively implementing the process amidst an active conflict. The SSR model was largely developed for post-conflict and post-authoritarian environments featuring favorable political conditions for reform. In Afghanistan, the SSR project and the Bonn political dispensation has faced progressively greater levels of violence with each passing year, reaching the level of a full-blown war covering large parts of the country by 2008. In the absence of a genuine political settlement with the Taliban and other stakeholders, the SSR process has been conceived of and applied as a means to confront the growing insurgency, rather than as part of a larger state building and democratization project, as it was intended. It is difficult to imagine a more inhospitable environment for SSR than the one that confronted Afghan and international state builders in the wake of the Taliban's ouster in late 2001. Over two decades of intense civil war left little institutional infrastructure and human capacity to build upon; public attitudes toward the state and security sector were marked by mistrust and suspicion; and insecurity, whether caused by insurgent activity, crime or inter-communal violence was widespread.
Topic:
Security and Reform
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Taliban

7. Trends in the military research and development strategy of the UK from 1997 to 2010

Author:
Joachim Burbiel
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of issues, trends and changes in British military research and development, with an emphasis on the time of the last Labour government (1997 to 2010). The analysis is focussed on doctrinal documents issued by government institutions. Tensions in British defence matters are highlighted by documenting responses to these documents from parliamentary bodies and a wider public
Topic:
Defense Policy and Government
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

8. Security & Justice Development – What Next?

Author:
Andrew Rathmell
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
The development of local security and justice sectors in developing, fragile and conflict-affected states has for a long time been an important strand in the UK’s approach to delivering its national security and development objectives. The 2009 White Paper on international development committed DFID to placing considerably greater emphasis on promoting security and access to justice in developing states. The Ministry of Defence’s Green Paper is likely to place greater emphasis on soft power, including security cooperation activities. In some countries, the UK has poured bilateral resources into this domain, from the training of Afghan military and police to the reform of the Sierra Leone security sector and the strengthening of various African militaries and police forces.
Topic:
International Relations
Political Geography:
United Kingdom

9. Civil-Military Relations: Is there really a problem?

Author:
David Chuter
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
The author has argued in a previous article that Security Sector Reform (SSR) is essentially a melange of Anglo-Saxon Civil-Military Relations (CMR) theory and the traditional dim view of the military usually held by those in the development sector. This article, treats the first component in more detail, since the main theoretical assumptions of SSR about the security sector, the place of the military, and so forth, are essentially dependent on the validity of certain propositions advanced by CMR theorists in the past. Thus, if these propositions are shown to be false, or even incomplete, then there must be important reservations about the validity of much SSR thinking, not to mention practice. It is, indeed, the element of practice which is especially important here, because, unlike CMR which was essentially descriptive, SSR is overtly prescriptive. A theory which describes reality incorrectly or incompletely is unfortunate, but that a doctrine which prescribes action on the basis of a fallacious theory is positively dangerous.

10. Application of Principal-Agent Theory to Security Sector Reform

Author:
James Cohen
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
The goal of this paper is to propose principal-agent theory (PAT), a methodology adapted from economics to analyse the relations of a buyer and a seller, as a possible tool for an SSR practitioners' assessment toolbox. The added value of PAT is its capacity to analyse the relationships between actors of the security sector based on observable, measurable and tangible mechanisms that the actors utilise in controlling, resisting, and allying with other actors. This capacity to analyse these relations has been sought out in both academic critiques of SSR and from practitioners themselves. This paper is an initial proposal on the added value of PAT, in addition to demonstrating how it could be used, gaps are also identified on how to potentially take this tool forward to aid the SSR community.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
United States

11. The Afghan National Development Strategy: The Right Plan at the Wrong Time?

Author:
Jake Sherman
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
In 2005, the Government of Afghanistan initiated a process leading to the formulation of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS). The ANDS was formally launched at the International Conference in Support of Afghanistan in Paris on June 12, 2008. According to the Paris Conference Declaration, the strategy will be the “roadmap for joint action [by donors and the Afghan government] over the next five years and sets our shared priorities.”
Topic:
Government
Political Geography:
Afghanistan

12. Rethinking Post-War Security Promotion

Author:
Robert Muggah and Nat J. Colletta
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
The intensity and complexity of post-war violence routinely exceeds expectations. Many development and security specialists fear that, if left unchecked, mutating violence can potentially tip 'fragile' societies back into war. An array of 'conventional' security promotion activities are regularly advanced to prevent this from happening, including disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) and other forms of security sector reform (SSR). Meanwhile, a host of less widely recognised examples of security promotion activities are emerging that deviate from – and also potentially reinforce – DDR and SSR. Innovation and experimentation by mediators and practitioners has yielded a range of promising activities designed to mitigate the risks and symptoms of post-war violence including interim stabilisation measures and second generation security promotion interventions. Drawing on original evidence, this article considers a number of critical determinants of post-war violence that potentially shape the character and effectiveness of security promotion on the ground. It then issues a typology of security promotion practices occurring before, during and after more conventional interventions such as DDR and SSR. Taken together, the identification of alternative approaches to security promotion implies a challenging new research agenda for the growing field of security and development.
Topic:
Security, Development, War, and Reform
Political Geography:
United States

13. Security Sector Reform, Democracy, and the Social Contract: From Implicit to Explicit

Author:
Mark Knight
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
This paper asserts that there is a tension between traditional development paradigms and the post-Cold War leitmotif of democratisation which is as yet unresolved within the present SSR discourse. This tension is identified between what the paper describes as the developmental objectives of SSR, and its inherent democratic articulation. The paper argues that democratic principles remain the organisational logic within which SSR processes are conceived as taking place; and that a democratic environment is supported in order for the purpose of SSR – development – to be achieved. The paper takes issue with this model, and advocates for two alterations in the present SSR discourse. First, that SSR should be viewed as a democratising endeavour, specifically focused upon the security and justice processes, but retaining democracy as its intended measurable output. Second, that the conceptual device of the 'social contract', that describes the citizen/state relationship, should become a pivotal consideration when conceiving and delivering support to SSR processes.
Topic:
Cold War, Development, and Reform
Political Geography:
Europe

14. Implementing the Rule of Law in Integrated Missions: Security and Justice in the UN Mission in Liberia

Author:
Till Blume
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
“[W]hile trying to achieve a coherent approach, we must be cautious not to let our focus on the mechanics of coherence overshadow the UN's objectives “. This article seeks to review the concepts of integrated missions, rule of law (RoL), and security sector reform (SSR) – as well as analyse the United Nations Missions in Liberia's (UNMIL) efforts at integrating both concepts in its implementation plans and procedures. Firstly, an overview of integration efforts will be given. Thereafter, the RoL coordination and implementation of holistic planning and thinking in UNMIL will be described. At the end of the article, the focus will turn to some of the key challenges and policy implications that come with integrating RoL and SSR.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
United Nations and Liberia

15. Policing in Post-Conflict Environment: Implications for Police Reform in Uganda

Author:
Elijah Dickens Mushemeza
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
This paper assesses attempts by Uganda to improve post-conflict policing in the greater northern region of the country. The article analyses the causes and impact of the most violent conflicts the country has experienced in recent decades. The paper then describes the current situation of relative stability as a result of peace negotiations and disarmament exercises in the Karamoja sub-region, and the requirements for post-conflict policing. It then argues that despite the few successes achieved by the police, in particular with regard to de-mining activities, there is an urgent need to reform the force if it is to cope successfully with the continued demands of the post-conflict environment. Reform of policing activities is required immediately to ensure the protection of the population's human rights, and to re–balance inequality in the provision of policing services provided to the public.
Topic:
Human Rights and Reform
Political Geography:
Uganda

16. Policing and Formed Police Units during Democratic Transitions

Author:
Michael D. Wiatrowski, Nathan W. Pino, and Anita Pritchard
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
In post-conflict situations, safety and security are major concerns. Increased levels of crime, violence and disorder associated with postconflict environments may exceed the ability of the police to maintain order, particularly if the police are expected to reform in-line with human rights, democratic values and citizen safety. If the police are given a paramilitary function which will enable them to fight militias and insurgents, this can easily destroy their legitimacy and create a police culture that does not promote democratic development. In addition, the military forces present in a post-conflict environment typically lack the skills to facilitate a transition from rule by force to stability and the rule of law. It may therefore be necessary to create a unique police force that can both provide security and also promote a transition to a more stable and accountable environment, thus allowing conventional police forces to focus on developing according to democratic values. This paper considers this unique force, its roles, and relationships with conventional police forces, military and peacekeeping forces, and the population in post-conflict situations.
Topic:
Security and Human Rights

17. Developing a Decision-making Model for Security Sector Development in Uncertain Situations

Author:
Marianne Tracy and Dr. Ann M Fitz-Gerald
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
This paper recognises the many difficulties facing SSR practitioners operating on the ground in terms of their capacity to make strategic decisions which inform wider SSR planning. It evaluates many models and methodologies based on key criteria which – according to the SSR literature – significantly impacts on decisions taken regarding SSR programmes. The authors recognise that the most effective decisionmaking in uncertain environments is often supported by strong leadership, intuition and expeditious – but measured – approaches. Whilst this paper does not advocate for a more academic approach to be taken to SSR decision-making it illustrates the conceptual and academic thinking supporting the framework of the adapted and more simplified model chosen. The practical value of the decision-making model is discussed in the final section of the paper which overviews a notional model using defence reform and police as two relatively straightforward SSR programme areas. Whilst this paper forms the basis of the model's development, the real value of the model can be realised in the initial strategic planning phases of an SSR programme. In addition, the model can be used in a number of further simplified and 'short cut, forms which offer practitioners a simple methodology for establishing initial SSR related decisions. In parallel to this initial publication of the model – and in addition to the national SSR programmes used to trial the initial ideas - the authors will be producing a series of case studies which illustrate more simple and practical approaches to using the model in a number of national and thematic examples.
Topic:
Development and Reform
Political Geography:
United Nations

18. Reverse Stakeholder Mapping: On the Need for Actor-Based SSR Strategizing in Post-Conflict Environments

Author:
Erwin van Veen
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
Immediate post-conflict environments are complex, fluid and risky. A plethora of short and longer term challenges jostle for priority. Basic human needs must be met, stability and the rule of law restored and trade must recommence. In addition, all of this must happen in a relatively short period if a peace agreement is to be used to best advantage (Ashdown, 2007, 67-95). At the same time, the groundwork must be laid for activities that will last for decades. Infrastructure must be rebuilt, institutions recreated, legislation put in place, capacity built and economic stability returned (for instance: Junne and Verkoren, 2005; Klingebiel, 2006). The assistance of the international community nearly always required to meet the substantial challenges of early recovery and subsequent longer-term development.
Topic:
Development and Reform

19. Building Counter-Terrorism Capacity Across Borders: Lessons from the Defeat of "Revolutionary Organization November 17th"

Author:
Christos Floros and Bruce Newsome
Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
Since 2001, governments have made more resources available for building counter-terrorist capacity abroad, but performance has not matched the rhetoric. Lessons from the defeat of the November 17th terrorist organization in Greece suggest that political or material commitments are necessary but insufficient conditions of international counter-terrorist capacity-building. More important, but less acknowledged, are the organizational conditions. Governments should encourage more cooperative, less self-reliant cultures in their agencies, develop multi-laterally beneficial objectives, and prohibit activities unauthorised by the host country. Some of the lessons, such as adherence to the same rules of law by all stakeholders, confirm norms in security sector reform. Others, such as increased security sector powers, run counter to those norms.
Topic:
Security, Government, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
America and Greece

20. Developing a Performance Measurement System for Security Sector Interventions

Author:
Dr. Ann M Fitz-Gerald and Dr Sylvie Jackson
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:
Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:
Broader and more comprehensive approaches to post-conflict interventions have been developed by both the security and development communities. Such comprehensive and 'joined-up' approaches have enjoyed huge gains at the policy and planning levels, particularly in wider security policy areas such as Security Sector Reform (SSR). Integrated planning cells, joint assessment teams and missions, joint doctrine and cross-Government steering committees all represent mechanisms which have facilitated the broader approach to security and development work and between two fields which – in the past – rarely interacted at both the strategic planning and operational levels.
Topic:
Security, Development, and Reform
Political Geography:
United Kingdom