Prioritizing Security Sector Reform: A New U.S. Approach argues that security sector reform should be at the core of a new U.S. policy to strengthen the security sector capacity of countries where U.S. interests are at stake. Today's fragile environments feature a host of postconflict and postauthoritarian states and transitioning and new democracies that have at least one critical thing in common: Their security sectors are dysfunctional. Why these states cannot fulfill their most basic function-the protection of the population and their government-varies widely, but the underlying reason is the same. The security sector does not function because security sector institutions and forces are absent, ineffective, predatory, or illegitimate. In place of large, boots-on-the-ground interventions relying on expensive train and equip programs with only fleeting impact, Washington needs a new approach for engaging in fragile environments and a policy for prioritizing where it engages and for what purpose. The volume offers case studies to exemplify the context in which a new U.S. approach might be warranted, discusses other countries' experiences with security sector reform policies and examines how the United States should design and implement a security sector reform policy. Book jacket.

The Global Fragility Act calls upon the U.S. government to develop a strategy for addressing fragility and stabilizing violent countries. A state of fragility, or a cycle of violence, often points to deficits of legitimacy or capacity among formal security and justice institutions. The process of reforming the formal security sector—which may involve a focus on defense or civilian institutions, security policy, or oversight and accountability—can serve an important function in preventing violence but may also introduce destabilizing effects. Security institutions serve political ends, and reform is a political process. Policymakers charged with developing both global and country-specific strategies should understand the correspondence between security actors and the nature of fragility and should be thoughtful and deliberate in deciding how best to support reform. Moreover, policymakers should closely examine the compatibility of their reform agenda with other security objectives, such as counterterrorism and military interoperability. The U.S. government can draw upon a wealth of its own experience and expertise to apply key lessons—the importance of humility, the benefits of selectivity, and the need to support locally originated processes. The United States can also further innovate, adding emphasis to accountability, and expanding the use of “compacts” in its support relationships.

To help experts and practitioners working to tackle the problem of armed violence, three Programming Notes build on the 2009 publication entitled Armed Violence Reduction: Enabling Development. These three notes cover: Armed violence in urban areas ...

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 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