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 examines Israel’s civil-military relations (CMR) in order to explore alternatives to orthodox Western models of security sector reform (SSR) in post-conflict societies. This book argues that the guidelines of SSR have always tended to draw on theoretical work in the field of CMR and focus too heavily on Western, liberal democratic models of governance. Consequently, reform programs based on these guidelines, and intended for use in post-conflict and conflict-affected states, have had, at best, mixed results. The book challenges the necessity for this over-reliance on traditional Western liberal democratic solutions and instead advocates an alternative approach. It proposes that by drawing on an unconventional CMR model, that in turn references the specific context and cultural background of the particular state being subject to reform, there is a significantly higher chance of success. Drawing on a case study of Israel's CMR, the author seeks to provide practical assistance to those working in this area and considers the question of how this unorthodox CMR model might usefully inform post-conflict and conflict-affected SSR programmes. This book will be of interest to students of military studies, security studies, Israeli politics, and International Relations.

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.

This monograph discusses the definition of security sector reform (SSR) and its components. An examination of case studies of SSR in Haiti, Liberia, and Kosovo assess the value of these programs.

Challenges to security and human rights involving extractive and other industries gave rise to an evolving framework of policy, standards and good practice generally known as business and human rights (BHR). Problems with inefficient and unaccountable security institutions are addressed by security sector reform (SSR). From an empirical perspective – the view from the often mutual operating grounds of BHR and SSR – both approaches share many challenges, as well as end goals. It is thus striking that only on rare occasions are challenges in governance of the security sector addressed upfront as problems of poor resource governance, and vice versa. This paper describes the grounds where SSR and BHR coincide in principles, actors and activities, and which synergies can be built on that base. It makes the business case for SSR, and the SSR case for business. The paper assesses how SSR can channel resources and know-how from business to address critical challenges related to ownership, capacity and sustainability of reform processes. Opportunities for bridging BHR and SSR are drawn from a broad range of policy and guidance, and by looking at lessons from case studies on Guinea, Colombia and Papua New Guinea. SSR and BHR should not collide; ideally, they should cohere. A variety of multistakeholder initiatives open new opportunities to bring this about, with particular relevance to SSR in extractive environments. The overall conclusion, supported by practical propositions for implementation, is that the existing policies and standards in SSR and BHR already allow, and call for, a less rigid approach to the challenges addressed in both fields.

This book sets out to break down and identify positive associations between Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) and Security Sector Reform (SSR). Drawing on case studies from selected post-conflict settings, the book demonstrates the potential and reality of improved collaboration between both endeavors. Enhanced cooperation could avoid negative outcomes, such as former combatants dropping out of programs, trust undermined in security institutions, and the creation of security vacuums that jeopardize the safety of individuals and communities. A central claim of the book is that programs must be responsive to the needs and interests of different national actors. Without understanding the dynamic political processes that shape the origins, parameters, and outcomes of both processes, DDR and SSR may address security deficits, but will be unfit to support sustainable transitions towards national recovery and development. (Series: Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces [DCAF])

The author presents an explanatory overview and analysis of progress made with the process of security sector reform in Liberia -- with particular reference to the armed forces and the police. The author begins with a concise review of what the theory of SSR and its application in the Liberian context and follows with a description of Liberia's post-war security architecture and the urgent need for a comprehensive and sustained process of reform. An overview of the legal and conceptual framework for engaging in SSR in Liberia is provided as further backdrop to substantive sections dealing with the reform (or re-building) of the Armed Forces of Liberia and the Liberia National Police. The author concludes with a critical analysis of the SSR process and recommendations for further action.

The war in Iraq in spring 2003 was a further indication of the "resecuritization" of international relations triggered by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. However, the new (or renewed) primacy of security will be of a rather different nature as compared to the Cold War period. The underlying assumption of the essays in this volume is that security issues will increasingly be approached from a governance perspective and that, in this context, the internal dimension of security governance--security sector governance--is an issue whose rapidly growing importance has not yet been duly recognized. Heiner Hnggi is assistant director of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. Theodor H. Winkler is director of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces.