This book examines the evolution, impact, and future prospects of the Security Sector Reform (SSR) model in conflict-affected countries in the context of the wider debate over the liberal peace project. Since its emergence as a concept in the late 1990s, SSR has represented a paradigm shift in security assistance, from the realist, regime-centric, train-and-equip approach of the Cold War to a new liberal, holistic and people-centred model. The rapid rise of this model, however, belied its rather meagre impact on the ground. This book critically examines the concept and its record of achievement over the past two decades, putting it into the broader context of peace-building and state-building theory and practice. It focuses attention on the most common, celebrated and complex setting for SSR, conflict-affected environments, and comparatively examines the application and impacts of donor-supported SSR programing in a series of conflict-affected countries over the past two decades, including Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The broader aim of the book is to better understand how the contemporary SSR model has coalesced over the past two decades and become mainstreamed in international development and security policy and practice. This provides a solid foundation to investigate the reasons for the poor performance of the model and to assess its prospects for the future. This book will be of much interest to students of international security, peacebuilding, statebuilding, development studies and IR in general.

Multilateral organizations - the United Nations (UN) in particular - have played, and continue to play, an important role in shaping the security sector reform (SSR) agenda, both in terms of policy development and the provision of support to a wide range of national SSR processes. This volume presents a variety of perspectives on UN support to SSR, past and present, with attention to policy and operational practice. Drawing from the experience of UN practitioners combined with external experts on SSR, this volume offers an in-depth exploration of the UN approach to SSR from a global perspective.

This book investigates the extent to which research has influenced and interacted with SSR policies, programmes and activities implemented by the UK in conflict-affected Sierra Leone. Varisco uses concepts and notions from the literature on the policy process and research utilisation to explore the ways in which research has influenced UK-led SSR policy. Here, the author analyses the evolution of the network of policy-makers, street-level bureaucrats, and researchers working on SSR in Sierra Leone, and argues that two main variables – an increased stability in the country and a progressive evolution of SSR in policy and research – contributed to the expansion of the policy network over time and to a better use of research by street-level bureaucrats on the ground. This title derives from the Sierra Leone case study a series of recommendations to improve the use of research by international organisations and bilateral donors working in fragile states

Intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) play a crucial role in security sector reform and governance (SSR/G). In virtually all instances of recent and current SSR programme delivery, IGOs have either led the SSR effort or supported the lead provided by other actors. How this role is played is of vital importance for the prospects of fostering durable security and development in a wide range of countries. This volume looks at a selection of organisations that have been in the forefront of SSR activity or that have the potential for significantly developing their SSR agendas in the future. These IGOs are the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Union (EU), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe (CoE), the Economic Organisation of West African States (ECOWAS), the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This year's volume is divided into four parts: conceptual issues; case studies on how IGOs have approached SSR in programme areas that are particularly representative of their overall action; case studies on the way various actors, primarily but not exclusively IGOs, have worked with each other in implementing SSR and supporting its implementation; and conclusions drawn from the various case studies as well as policy recommendations for future IGO work in the area of SSR/G.

"Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) and Security Sector Reform (SSR) have emerged in recent years as promising though generally poorly understood mechanisms for consolidating stability and reasserting state sovereignty after conflict. Despite the considerable experience acquired by the international community, the critical interrelationship between DDR and SSR and the ability to use these mechanisms with consistent success remain less than optimally developed. The chapters in this book reflect a diversity of field experience and research in DDR and SSR, which suggest that these are complex and interrelated systems, with underlying political attributes. Successful application of DDR and SSR requires the setting aside of preconceived assumptions or formulas, and should be viewed flexibly to restore to the state the monopoly of force."--P. [4] of cover.

This report reveals that recent trends in global aid since 2001 demonstrate the foreign policy priorities of donors in the global "war on terror". The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have captured more than a third of the new aid resources allocated by donors since 2001. While recent aid resources have been diverted, new aid pledges made in 2005 still fall far short of the urgently needed financing to meet even the minimal Millennium Development Goals. In 2007 the international community has an opportunity to replace rhetoric and policy "slights-of-hand" with policies and resources that could truly make a difference for a decade devoted to ending global poverty and creating conditions for peace.

The OECD DAC Handbook on Security System Reform: Supporting Security and Justice contains valuable tools to help encourage a dialogue on security and justice issues and to support a security system reform (SSR) process through the assessment, design and implementation phases.

This volume analyzes the Stability Pact South East Europe Self-Assessment Studies with the three-fold aim of enhancing the relevance of the original papers, examining their findings for the benefit of local, national, regional and international decision-makers, and preparing the ground for a possible more comprehensive phase of the Stock-Taking Programme. Western and regional contributors were asked to assess the quality of the papers, address any omissions, add contextual information they perceived to be relevant, and, on the basis of those findings, make constructive suggestions and recommendations for enhanced international institutional engagement in the region. Three types of analyses were commissioned: analyses of the self-assessment papers by country; region-wide analyses of the topical papers; and a conclusive chapter surveying not only the self-assessment papers in the original volumes but also the thematic and national analyses in this volume, data from the Swiss MFA Stability Pact mandated Expert Formation and Transparency in Defence Programmes studies.

Military and police forces play a crucial role in the long-term success of rebuilding efforts in post-conflict societies. Yet, while charged with the long-term task of providing a security environment conducive to rebuilding war-torn societies, internal security structures tend to lack civilian and democratic control, internal cohesion and effectiveness, and public credibility. They must be placed under democratic control and restructured and retrained to become an asset, not a liability, in the long-term peacebuilding process. External actors from other nations, regional organizations, and the United Nations can be of assistance in this process by creating a basic security environment, preventing remnants of armed groups from spoiling the fragile peacebuilding process, and by facilitating reform of the local security sector. This book offers examples and analyses by an international group of academics and practitioners with direct experiences with security sector reform programs. The case studies offer the reader a useful laboratory in which comparisons can be made and observations tested. It will be useful to policymakers interested in understanding the complexity of addressing security sector reform and civil-military relations.--W. Andy Knight, University of Alberta, Canada.