In the 1960s, only 10% of peace agreements included some element of political-military accommodation – namely, military integration. From Burundi to Bosnia to Zimbabwe, that number had increased to over 50% by the 2000s. However, relatively little is understood about this dimension of power-sharing often utilized during war-to-peace transitions. Through an examination of the case of South Sudan between 2006 and 2013, this book explores why countries undergoing transitions from war to peace decide to integrate armed groups into a statutory security framework. This book details how integration contributed to short-term stability in South Sudan, allowing the government to overcome wartime factionalism and consolidate political-military power prior to the referendum on self-determination in 2011. It also examines how the integration process in South Sudan was flawed by its open-ended nature and lack of coordination with efforts to right-size the military and transform the broader defense sector, and how this led the military to fragment during periods of heightened political competition. Furthermore, the book explains why integration ultimately failed in South Sudan, and identifies the wider lessons that could be applied to current or future war-to-peace transitions. This book will be of great interest to students of war and conflict studies, peacebuilding, post-conflict reconstruction, African security issues, and International Relations in general, as well as to practitioners.

This thesis examines the role of military integration during war-to-peace transitions, with a particular focus on the case of South Sudan between 2005 and 2013. Drawing on the nascent literature on military integration, this thesis makes five contributions that help understand the role this process can play in such environments. First, this thesis argues that governments undergoing war-to-peace transitions can either fight armed groups, ignore them and accept that they lack the monopoly on the use of force within the country, or seek political-military accommodation with them through military integration. When presented with these options, integration can be the 'least bad' choice in some cases. Second, this thesis demonstrates that military integration can help temporarily overcome wartime factionalism, thereby benefitting short-term peace consolidation, but can eventually lead to instability if the process is not approached as a transitional security mechanism. Third, the case of South Sudan examined in this thesis shows how the combination of an open-ended integration process and failed demobilization initiatives can increase pressure on the military integration process as the most expedient way of mitigating the threat these groups pose to stability. Fourth, this thesis argues that a disconnect between the integration process and broader defence sector reform efforts can result in the security sector being rebuilt on an unstable foundation, as was the case in South Sudan. Finally, this thesis uses South Sudan's experience with military integration to demonstrate how a military's failure to 'graduate' from the integration process risks leaving the security sector in a state of arrested development, preventing efforts to transform the military from gaining traction, and making the force prone to fracturing during periods of heightened political competition.

"This book explores why countries undergoing transitions from war to peace decide to integrate armed groups into a statutory security framework, with a focus on the case of South Sudan. In the 1960s, only 10% of peace agreements included some element of political-military accommodation - namely, military integration. From Burundi to Bosnia to Zimbabwe, that number had increased to over 50% by the 2000s. However, relatively little is understood about this dimension of power-sharing often utilized during war-to-peace transitions. Through an examination of the case of South Sudan between 2005 and 2013, this book explores why countries undergoing transitions from war to peace decide to integrate armed groups into a statutory security framework. The book details how integration contributed to short-term stability in South Sudan, allowing the government to overcome wartime factionalism and consolidate political-military power prior to the referendum on self-determination in 2011. It also examines how the integration process in South Sudan was flawed by its open-ended nature and lack of coordination with efforts to right-size the military and transform the broader defense sector, and how this led the military to fragment during periods of heightened political competition. Furthermore, the book explains why integration ultimately failed in South Sudan, and identifies the wider lessons that could be applied to current or future war-to-peace transitions. This book will be of great interest to students of war and conflict studies, peacebuilding, post-conflict reconstruction, African security issues and International Relations in general, as well as to practitioners"--

CMH Pub 50-1-1. Defense Studies Series. Discusses the evolution of the services' racial policies and practices between World War II and 1965 during the period when black servicemen and women were integrated into the Nation's military units.

This book explores the conditions under which non-state armed groups (NSAGs) participate in post-war security and political governance. The text offers a comprehensive approach to post-war security transition processes based on five years of participatory research with local experts and representatives of former non-state armed groups. It analyses the successes and limits of peace negotiations, demobilisation, arms management, political or security sector integration, socio-economic reintegration and state reform from the direct point of view of conflict stakeholders who have been central participants in ongoing and past peacebuilding processes. Challenging common perceptions of ex-combatants as "spoilers" or "passive recipients of aid", the various contributors examine the post-war transitions of these individuals from state challengers to peacebuilding agents. The book concludes on a cross-country comparative analysis of the main research findings and the ways in which they may facilitate a participatory, inclusive and gender-sensitive peacebuilding strategy. Post-War Security Transitions will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, security governance, war and conflict studies, political violence and IR in general.

While disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) and security sector reform (SSR) have become integral statebuilding tools in post-conflict states, the existing empirical literature examining their relationship has focused on supply-side considerations related to the programming of both processes. In practice, though, DDR and SSR are implemented in the wider context of war-to-peace transitions where the state is attempting to establish a monopoly over the use of force and legitimize itself in the eyes of domestic and international communities. This paper therefore assumes that to identify opportunities and constraints for establishing closer practical linkages between DDR and SSR it is important to take the local politics into consideration. It examines two past externally driven peacebuilding interventions in West Africa, namely Liberia and Sierra Leone, featuring cases in which the central state had essentially fragmented or collapsed. Through this comparative analysis, the paper aims to provide a stepping-stone for future studies examining demand-side considerations of DDR and SSR in post-conflict contexts.

World Bank Discussion Paper No. 331. With the assistance of Emilio Mondo, Taimi Sitari, and Tadesse A. Woldu. Provides a detailed analysis of the intricate nature of the political, economic, and sociocultural issues that arise during the transition from war to peace in Ethiopia, Namibia, and Uganda. These countries offer a unique range of conditions and program models, as well as a variety of successes and failures from which to learn. A recently released overview, The Transition from War to Peace in Sub-Saharan Africa (Stock no. 13581; ISBN 0-8213-3581-2), is based on these country studies and a synthesis of reports of demobilization and reintegration programs in several other countries.