Introduction: Second-Generation Security Sector Reform

Security sector reform (SSR) has become a commonly used tool for international approaches to insecure countries. Despite its frequent deployment as a key element of statebuilding, SSR suffers from both a lack of a conceptual hinterland and also lack of strong evidence of success. This special collection of papers explores these ideas, starting from an assumption that there are serious issues with SSR in practice. SSR, alongside many other facets of international aid programming, has suffered from an excess of technocentric and managerial approaches, with politics relegated to the sidelines. These articles outline what this means in practice and what a second generation of SSR could look like: an approach based on process and politics rather than linear managerialism.     

Security Sector Reform from a Policy Transfer Perspective: A Comparative Study of International Interventions in the Palestinian Territories,Liberia and Timor-Leste

Security sector reform (SSR), targeting security forces and their management and oversight institutions, has become a major feature of international peace- and statebuilding activities. The article draws on policy transfer research to assess substantive and procedural changes in how international actors intervene in the security governance of fragile or post-conflict states. By comparing transfer processes in Liberia, Timor-Leste and the Palestinian Territories, the article shows that despite variations across political, economic and strategic factors in each domestic context, external SSR interventions showed distinct similarities. SSR interventions expanded their substantive scope over time; less directly coercive mechanisms of persuasion and socialization increasingly replaced the direct imposition of external models of security governance; and the influence of domestic elite actors on transfer processes increased over the duration of interventions.     

Adapting Security Sector Reform to Ground-Level Realities: The Transition to a Second-Generation Model

The security sector reform (SSR) model has entered a period of uncertainty and change. Despite being mainstreamed in international development and security policy, SSR has had a meagre record of achievement. SSR analysts, practitioners and policymakers are increasingly speaking of the need to move to a second-generation SSR model. There is a growing belief that SSR in its current form is too utopian, technocratic, state-centric, and donor-driven to succeed. While there is no universally accepted blueprint for second-generation SSR, a number of characteristics have emerged that have begun to define the contours of this alternative vision: less overtly liberal; willing to engage non-state actors, norms and structures; more modest in is objectives and time frames; attuned to the political nature of the process; and bottom-up in its orientation.     

Security Sector Reform and Transitional Justice in Kosovo: Comparing the Kosovo Security Force and Police Reform Processes

Abstract

Transitional justice and security sector reform are critical in post-conflict settings, particularly regarding the reform of judicial systems, intelligence services, police, correctional systems, the military, and addressing systemic massive human rights abuses committed by individuals representing these institutions. Accordingly, the relationship between security sector reform and transitional justice mechanisms, such as vetting, the representation of ethnic minorities in key institutions, the resettlement and reintegration of the former combatants deserve special attention from scholars. This article presents a comparative analysis of the reform of police and security forces in Kosovo, and explores the causes of different outcomes of these two processes.     

Moving Beyond Hybridity: the Multi-Scalar Adaptation of Community Policing in Liberia

Extensive fieldwork in Liberia revealed that security agents and civilians alike all talked of community policing, yet they had different visions, understandings and legitimizations of the idea in mind. These ranged from community meetings to vigilante groups, and were divergent in whether they were orientated towards a Weberian-state model or the community as a primary security provider. This variation was not simply an example of hybrid policing, but revealed a multi-scalar adaption process across and between international, national and local actors and (geographical) scales. Theories on hybridity are insufficient to analyse such implementation processes since the scholarship heuristically still favours binary and essentialized actors and ‘pure’ starting points or blueprints.     

Gender and Defence Sector Reform: Problematising the Place of Women in Conflict-Affected Environments

ABSTRACT

While gender-responsive Security Sector Reform (SSR) is increasingly recognised as being key to successful SSR programmes, women continue to be marginalised in post-conflict SSR programmes, particularly defence sector reform. By focussing on developments in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kosovo and Colombia, this article explores the paradox of women’s marginalisation in defence sector reform and post-reform defence structures in places where women were active combatants during the preceding conflict. This article refers to examples of women’s engagement in combat to challenge some of the reasons given for women’s marginalisation, including reference to women’s skillset, aptitude and interests. The article adopts a feminist institutionalist approach to show how SSR helps security sector institutions construct and reconstruct gender power relations, reinforce gendered dynamics of exclusion, and determine gendered outcomes. It concludes by drawing attention to the transformational potential of SSR to alter gender power relations, and thereby enhance the security of women and the sustainability of peacebuilding efforts.     

Public Sector Reform

Reform is never far from the centre of public administration practice and scholarship. In this article Doug McTaggart, the chairman of the Queensland Public Service Commission, and Janine O'Flynn, from the University of Melbourne, explore the challenges of reform and the state of play. McTaggart, who was a commissioner on the Queensland Commission of Audit, sets out the case that business as usual will no longer suffice given the range of challenges faced by governments. He sets out to explain how we ended up in our current state and what needs to happen to repair it, drawing on deep experience in the practice of reform. O'Flynn positions reform as one of the central questions in public administration and management and makes the case for rethinking reform conceptually to drive change in practice. In doing so she points to our weaknesses in determining whether reform fails or succeeds and makes the case that, until we rethink reform, business as usual might be all we end up with. McTaggart and O'Flynn bring together the expertise of practice and academia to bring new insights in this persistent challenge of public administration, and raise a series of questions for debate.     

Local Ownership and International Oversight: Police Reform in Post-Yugoslav States

ABSTRACT

This article compares the results of police reform in three post-Yugoslav states that vary in terms of local ownership. Using survey, focus group, and interview data gathered in Kosovo, Serbia, and Macedonia, we find that the public perceives the police force created and trained by international oversight as more capable and legitimate when compared to police forces that grew under local ownership. Insulation from political and societal influence led to a more capable and legitimate police force in Kosovo, while the politicization of the police force under local ownership undermined its capacity and legitimacy in Macedonia and Serbia.     

Civil Society and Security Sector Reform in Post-conflict Liberia: Painting a Moving Train without Brushes

This article describes the activities related to civil society'sengagement with the question of security sector reform (SSR)in Liberia since the signing of the Accra Comprehensive PeaceAccord (CPA) in August 2003, identifies the challenges it facesand draws lessons learned from this engagement; particularlythe need to develop local capacity, networks of support andnational ownership. Consideration is given to the specificsof the rapidly evolving post-conflict context in which suchreforms are taking place and their connection to the field oftransitional justice as a means of addressing a history of humanrights abuses. The discussion also covers the scope of potentialengagement for civil society in the new political landscapein Liberia that has been created by the deployment of one ofthe world's largest peacekeeping forces and the arrest of formerpresident Charles Taylor.     

Security Provision after Regime Change: Local Militias and Political Entities in Post-Qaddafi Tripoli

This paper discusses the way the newly formed political entities and the local militias engage in statebuilding practices during Libya's transitional period of 2011–12. Focusing on the encounters between these actors in the security field, it provides insight into the capacity and strategy of national actors to build state structures and to develop the political arrangements that they deem necessary. It does so by identifying the key actors involved, as well as the interactions between them and the constantly evolving relations of control, power and authority. It shows how actors in the security field engage with each other in their efforts to expand and to institutionalize networks and influence, and the competition and alignments with other security actors that are active in the transitional phase and thereafter.     

Is the Future of SSR non-linear?

This article explores issues around security sector reform (SSR) and the involvement of the international community in peace-building. It argues that the international architecture which surrounds SSR privileges a particular form of knowledge that reflects a technocratic approach to security, and illustrates this by systematically examining the literature. Research on the literature itself shows that three core themes dominate: state-centric approaches, technocratic approaches, and approaches to local ownership. These comprise a current, linear approach to SSR that ignores much of the critical literature on peace-building. The article then goes on to draw on some of this critical literature to develop an alternative approach to SSR building using a non-linear approach which incorporates a better understanding of institutional politics, an emphasis on process rather than structures, and analysis of hidden politics.     

The role of East Timor's security institutions in national integration – and disintegration

Abstract

This article examines the interplay between security sector developments and national unity in East Timor since the Indonesian occupation ended in 1999. Particular attention is paid to the regional distinction between Loromonu and Lorosae – people from the west and east of East Timor, respectively. In 2006, East Timor experienced a crisis that saw the disintegration of the military and police forces, and widespread violence that led to massive internal displacement. It was during this crisis that the Loromonu–Lorosae distinction first emerged as a major societal cleavage. The article argues that the independence cause and the guerrilla force Falintil had been an important focus of East Timorese national unity in 1999. In the years that followed, however, the implementation of flawed security policies led to new military and police forces that were politicized, factionalized and lacking in cohesion. Prior to the 2006 crisis, the Loromonu–Lorosae distinction was primarily an issue within the army. As the crisis escalated, however, the violence was to a large extent framed by the east–west dimension, and popular perceptions of the military as ‘eastern’ and the police as ‘western’ hardened. A year after the crisis, little if any progress had been made towards reducing the increased salience of the Loromonu–Lorosae distinction in society. The main internal security challenges – gang activity, the unresolved issue of the so-called ‘petitioners’, and the destabilizing role played by fugitive former head of military police Alfredo Reinado – all had an east–west dimension. The article also finds that new initiatives aimed at reforming East Timor's military and police forces appeared to be lacking in both depth and relevance for addressing the country's new level of internal division, and its immediate, internal security challenges.     

Local Ownership as Dependence Management: Inviting the Coloniser Back

This article challenges the tendency to understand local ownership of statebuilding processes chiefly as a product of how international donors plan and implement reforms rather than of how such efforts are appropriated by local actors. Local ownership is typically described as a quality which is ‘supported’, ‘fostered’, ‘granted’ or ‘stifled’ by foreigners rather than something which is simply taken by the hosts of such interventions. Drawing on the case of British-led police reform in Sierra Leone, the article argues that local authorities exercised ownership by actively drawing their former colonizer into the security sector, thus deepening and prolonging the intervention. This contradicts two common assumptions about local ownership: (i) it is aimed at reducing international influence and (ii) it will be scarcer and more difficult to achieve the weaker the host state. Rather than to control how the police reform was designed and implemented, the principal function of local ownership was to secure a powerful ally in the ongoing civil war and to achieve an outward reorientation of national security.     

Gendering the Rwanda Defence Force: A Critical Assessment

Over the past five years the Government of Rwanda has placed renewed emphasis on increasing the number of female military personnel and gender mainstreaming the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF). This article examines the efforts made by the RDF since 2007 to meet these strategic requirements and integrate women into the national security organ. It is suggested that, in spite of Rwanda's success in bringing women into the political sphere, women are still reluctant to join the military. It is argued that prevailing societal values and attitudes, conflicting narratives within official discourse about the role of women as security actors, resource constraints and the RDF's emphasis on ‘gender equality’ are barriers to achieving RDF goals. Drawing on in-depth interviews with RDF military personnel and government officials, as well as documentary research, the article first provides an overview of the Rwandan government's approach to mobilizing women to securitize the state, before examining how the RDF aims to progress the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda nationally and within local communities. The article then reflects on some of the factors that are hindering the recruitment and retention of female military personnel.     

Prevention From Afar: Gendering Resilience and Sustaining Hope in Post-UNMIL Liberia

ABSTRACT

This article argues that resilience programmes in conflict-affected areas of limited statehood could be understood as much as an effort to equip vulnerable populations with tools to mitigate the effects of poverty, discrimination, lack of opportunities and manage gender inequalities than as an opportunity for the international community to prolong their interventions, consolidate local partnerships and sustain hope. We demonstrate our argument through an examination of the implementation in post-UNMIL Liberia of the ‘Spotlight Initiative’, a new multi-year multi-million programme of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) focused on the complete elimination of harmful practices and violence against women.     

UNSC Resolution 1325 national action plans in Liberia and Sierra Leone: An analysis of gendered power relations in hybrid peacebuilding

This paper considers how the use of ‘hybridity’ in the peacebuilding literature overlooks the gendered dimensions of hybrid interactions. It does so by examining the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1325 national action plans (NAPs) for Liberia and Sierra Leone. By asking the gendered questions of ‘who participates?’ and ‘how do they participate?’ it draws from Mac Ginty’s conception of hybridity and traces the compliance and incentivizing power in hybridized peace, as well as the ability of local actors to resist and provide alternatives. However, Mac Ginty’s model is found to be inadequate because of its inattention to the gendered nature of power. It is found that with a gendered approach to hybridity, it is easier to trace the processes of hybridization of NAPs in post-conflict states where their implementation is limited. In asking the questions of ‘who’ and ‘how’, three conclusions about the gendered nature of hybrid peacebuilding are drawn: international intervention relies upon the ‘feminization’ of local actors; issues framed within the realm of the ‘masculine’ are more likely to get attention; and the Resolution 1325 agenda in post-conflict states can be subverted by framing it as a ‘soft’ issue.     

The Blair Governments, Public Sector Reform and State Strategic Capacity

Two books at the end of the Blair era—by Michael Barber and Julian Le Grand—offer to redeem the ‘third way’. Both authors explore the political case for public sector reform and the means by which it can be accomplished. They explore a similar range of reform models: command and control; quasi‐markets; and devolution and transparency. But the circle between efficiency, client service and continuous improvement must be squared. Neither author considers the ‘learning by doing’ alternative. No less fundamentally, neither author addresses the political and technical challenges in developing strategy. How are issues to be aired in advance so as to expose evidence and perspectives? How are interests to be engaged and supporting coalitions formed? How are these processes to occur without executive commitment? How are unconventional ideas to be aired without being over‐ruled by populist or media sensationalism? These are the practical dilemmas that confounded Blair's efforts. These books invite a strategic conversation that is badly needed. But where in the political system can it be pursued?     

Security sector reform and the challenge of vertical integration

The poor performance of conventional security sector reform (SSR) programming, especially in fragile and conflict-affected states, has led to growing calls for the development of a new generation of reform strategies capable of transcending the state-centrism of earlier approaches and delivering sustainable security dividends to insecure populations. This paper reflects on the challenges of second-generation SSR, with a particular emphasis on the imperatives of reconciling different understandings of ownership, of rendering SSR processes more inclusive, and of acknowledging the realities of non-state security provision. The paper suggests that at its core, SSR is about strengthening state-society relations, and that second-generation SSR will ultimately be judged on how effectively it comes to terms with the argument that genuine and sustainable change can only emerge through an endogenous process of relationship transformation, in which insiders, not outsiders, are the primary agents of change.     

安全技术防范课程教学实践改革研究

当前在公安院校的安全技术防范课程教学实践中,学生学习目标不明确、教师实践能力不足,教材内容滞后、教学设备陈旧,实践教学不足、课程考评机制单一等问题突出.拟从人、物、事三方面入手,围绕端正学生的学习态度、提高教师的业务能力、优化教材内容、促进实验实训管理以及推进实践教学、完善考评机制等方面对课程进行改革.     

Ownership in Theory and in Practice: Transfer of Authority in UN Statebuilding Operations

The language of ‘ownership’ is commonly used in statebuilding operations, but it is not clear that the term has either consistency or substance. It certainly does not have its literal meaning, in the sense of rights of possession either of property or a formal stake in an organization, such as shares in a corporation. Instead ownership tends to be used figuratively – much as ‘buy-in’ in this context usually does not suggest an actual financial transaction – to refer in a more vague way to the relationship between stakeholders, with meanings ranging from a sense of attachment to a programme or operation, to (rarely) actual controlling authority. This essay explores how ownership emerged as a shibboleth of the development community and how it has influenced UN statebuilding operations. The emphasis will be on rule of law institutions, but the critique of ownership applies to post-conflict operations more generally.