Context matters: interim stabilisation and second generation approaches to security promotion

The scale and ferocity of post-war violence regularly confounds the expectations of security and development specialists. When left unchecked, mutating violence can tip ‘fragile’ societies back into all out warfare. In the context of formal peace support operations, conventional security promotion efforts are routinely advanced to prevent this from happening. These include disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) and wider security system/sector reform (SSR). There are also lesser known but no less important interventions to promote security that deviate from—but also potentially reinforce and enhance—DDR and SSR. Faced with dynamic post-war contexts, erstwhile warring parties, peace mediators and practitioners have crafted a host of innovative and experimental security promotion initiatives designed to mitigate risks and symptoms of post-war violence including interim stabilisation measures and second generation DDR. Drawing on a growing evidence base, the article sets out a host of contextual determinants that shape the character and effectiveness of security promotion on the ground. It then issues a typology of emergent practices—some that occur before, during and after DDR and SSR interventions. Taken together, they offer a fascinating new research agenda for those preoccupied with post-war security promotion.     

Distinguishing Means and Ends: The Counterintuitive Effects of UNHCR's Community Development Approach in Nepal

UNHCR's community development approach (CDA) consists of a disparateset of guidelines designed to strengthen the self-reliance ofrefugees during protracted displacement. It envisions refugeesas agents of their own development, and aims to prepare themfor a durable solution. But in the absence of basic standardsand benchmarks, the CDA is being used—by implementingpartners as well as specialized units with the agency—asan opportunity to advance rights-based development. This raisesa number of concerns related to the desired aims of the CDA,the accountability of UNHCR and its implementing partners andits capacity to administer development while preserving itscore mandate. This article casts a critical eye over CDA asexperienced in Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. It contendsthat UNHCR must develop appropriate standards for CDA. At thevery least, the agency must move beyond basic emergency benchmarksand toward minimum standards that strengthen self-reliance andempower refugees, but do not simultaneously undermine prospectsof achieving a durable solution.     

The anatomy of disarmament,demobilisation and reintegration in the republic of Congo1

This analysis begins with a general account of the political and humanitarian context of the Republic of Congo (RoC) before and after the signing of the Ceasefire Accords in 1999. In laying out the general context of the violence, it also briefly describes a number of interventions undertaken by the Government of Congo (GoC) and the international community to promote and ensure security. It reflects on the considerable confusion among stakeholders over the definitions, objectives and sequencing of each phase, from disarmament and demobilisation to reintegration (DDR)—a challenge not unique to actors in the RoC. This article offers a tentative glossary of terms to inform future efforts in the domain of DDR and closes with a consideration of the impacts and roles of key stakeholders in the DDR continuum, and some of the challenges they might face in the future.     

Rethinking small arms control in Africa: it is time to set an armed violence reduction agenda

Policy-makers and practitioners concerned with small arms control have traditionally focused narrowly on ‘supply-side’ forms of regulation and containment. Concerned that excessive arms availability might destabilise fragile and post-war countries, they typically advance a host of activities such as weapons embargoes, export and import controls, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes and weapons collection schemes. These initiatives often achieve fewer dividends than expected. This article argues for a broader conceptualisation of ‘availability’ that accounts for both supply and demand dimensions. Availability would thus extend from arms production and diverse forms of weapons circulation to the manifold factors shaping acquisition and the multiple ways arms are used and misused. A broad spectrum treatment directly acknowledges the many faces of armed violence and allows for more sophisticated diagnosis, treatment and cure. This article considers how a host of ‘second generation’ armed violence prevention and reduction activities might enhance efforts to promote security in the aftermath of Africa's wars.     

The enemy within: rethinking arms availability in sub-Saharan Africa

Over the past decade small arms and light weapons availability has been singled out as one of sub-Saharan Africa's highest profile challenges. Yet the construction of the threat of arms availability as one of authorised trade and illicit trafficking across international borders has resulted in a narrow focus on regulating lawful exports and imports and brokers. While these are real and legitimate concerns, the authors contend that small arms and light weapons availability should be re-evaluated as a complex social phenomenon involving dynamic supply and demand dimensions. A limited emphasis on controlling authorised transfers to war zones glosses over the challenges of illegal markets, the gradual emergence of national arms production capacities across Africa and the systematic diversion of weapons and ammunition surplus from the domestic stocks of security services into civilian hands. It also obscures a more dynamic landscape of armed violence across the continent which extends beyond war zones. Whilst the conventional interpretation of arms availability is favoured by African diplomats and international arms control experts, such a reading potentially obscures the weaknesses of security governance and the myriad motivations and means shaping small arms and light weapons acquisition and misuse amongst armed groups and civilians.     

Violent disorder in Ciudad Juarez: a spatial analysis of homicide

This article considers the extent to which specific demographic and socioeconomic factors correlate with homicidal violence in the context of Mexico’s “war” on organized crime. We draw on Ciudad Juarez as a case study and social disorganization theory as an organizing framework. Social disorganization is expected to generate higher levels of homicidal violence. And while the evidence reveals several social disorganization factors associated with homicidal violence in Ciudad Juarez, not all relationships appear as predicted by the theory. Drawing on public census and crime data, our statistical assessment detects six significant variables (or risk factors) positively associated with homicidal violence in Ciudad Juarez between 2009 and 2010. Likewise, the assessment finds another six specific variables (or protective factors) that are negatively associated with above average homicide in the city between 2009 and 2010. The featured data and level of analysis do not conclusively demonstrate causation, nor was this the intent. Rather, we propose a baseline model for testing spatial-temporal dynamics of organized violence in multiple settings.