CIAO DATE: 02/2012
December 2011
Danish Institute for International Studies
In recent years, Security Sector Reform (SSR) has emerged as a key component of international post-conflict reconstruction efforts. At the same time, however, it is becoming increasingly clear that the people-centered approach to statebuilding that is outlined in SSR policy papers is very difficult to translate into effective interventions in fragile states. In this DIIS working paper, DIIS researcher Louise Riis Andersen explores the dilemmas of liberal intervention through the lenses of the SSR debate. It is within this policy sub-field that the troubled relationship between the security of the state and the security of the people becomes most evident. The author argues that at the present juncture, the key question confronting SSR-actors, and the wider international peace- and statebuilding community, is whether a conventional state monopoly on violence is required to ensure democratic governance, rule of law and other liberal values, or whether other – hybrid or non-state – forms of security and justice provision may be more in tune with local realities and preferences and thus more legitimate and sustainable.
Resource link: Security Sector Reform and the Dilemmas of Liberal Peacebuilding [PDF] - 176K