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ABSTRACT
The existing guidelines for security sector reform (SSR) tend to draw on theoretical work in the field of civil–military relations, which in turn has been derived from Western, liberal democratic models of governance. Although guidelines strongly advise that local culture and context need to be considered when drawing up objectives for post-conflict SSR programmes, this is not often reflected in practice. This article considers some of the reasons for this, citing both in-country challenges and donor-related issues, and suggests that one of the biggest problems is a lack of alternative, non-orthodox models of civil–military relations to draw upon. It is further suggested that elements of suitable alternative models may be found in states which possess political structures not entirely dissimilar to the Western, liberal democratic ideal, but which can offer different perspectives. Detailed research of these structures should produce a pool of sub-models which could then be employed to create bespoke, culturally appropriate objectives for use in post-conflict SSR programmes.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Eliot Cohen, Supreme Command (New York: Free Press, 2002), 4–7.
2 Nicole Ball, ‘The Evolution of the Security Sector Reform Agenda’, in The Future of Security Sector Reform, ed. Mark Sedra (Waterloo, ON: Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2010), 29–45; Alan Bryden and Heiner Hanggi, eds., Security Governance in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding (Munster: LIT Verlag and DCAF, 2005), http://www.dcaf.ch/Publications/Security-Governance-in-Post-Conflict-Peacebuilding; Owen Greene and Simon Rynn, ‘Linking and Co-Ordinating DDR and SSR for Human Security after Conflict: Issues, Experience and Priorities’, DDR and Human Security: Post Conflict Security Building and the Interests of the Poor (Bradford, 2008); Paul Jackson, ‘SSR and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Armed Wing of State Building’, in The Future of Security Sector Reform, ed. Mark Sedra (Waterloo, ON: Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2010), 118–35; Sabine Mannitz, ‘From Paternalism to Facilitation: SSR Shortcomings and the Potential of Social Anthropological Perspectives’, International Peacekeeping 21, no. 2 (2014): 269–85.
3 Mackubin Owens, ‘What Military Officers Need to Know About Civil-Military Relations’, Naval War College Review 65, no. 2 (2012): 67–87.
4 Peter D. Feaver, ‘The Civil-Military Problematique: Huntington, Janowitz, and the Question of Civilian Control’, Armed Forces & Society 23, no. 2 (January 1, 1996): 149–78.
5 Andrew Cottey, Timothy Edmunds, and Anthony Forster, Democratic Control of the Military in Postcommunist Europe Guarding the Guards, ed. Andrew Cottey, Timothy Edmunds, and Anthony Forster (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 6.
6 Cohen, Supreme Command.
7 Samuel P. Huntington, The Soldier and the State (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1957).
8 Morris Janowitz, The Professional Soldier: A Social and Political Portrait, 1st ed. (Glencoe: Free Press of Glencoe, 1960); S.E. Finer, The Man on Horseback: The Role of the Military in Politics (Oxford: Pall Mall Press, 1962).
9 James Burk, ‘Theories of Democratic Civil-Military Relations’, Armed Forces & Society 29, no. 1 (2002): 7–29; Andrew Cottey, Timothy Edmunds, and Anthony Forster, ‘The Second Generation Problematic: Rethinking Democracy and Civil-Military Relations’, Armed Forces and Society 29, no. 1 (2002): 31–56; Peter D. Feaver, Armed Servants. Agency, Oversight and Civil-Military Relations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003).
10 Rebecca Schiff, ‘Civil-Military Relations Reconsidered: A Theory of Concordance’, Armed Forces & Society 22, no. 1 (1995): 7–24; Douglas L. Bland, ‘A Unified Theory of Civil-Military Relations’, Armed Forces & Society 26, no. 1 (1999): 7–26; Gavin Cawthra and Robin Luckham, Governing Insecurity, ed. Gavin Cawthra and Robin Luckham (London: Zed Books, 2003).
11 SSR In a Nutshell, Manual for Introductory Training on Security Sector Reform (Geneva: DCAF ISSAT, 2012).
12 Mark Sedra, Security Sector Reform 101: Understanding the Concept, Charting Trends and Identifying Challenges (Ontario: Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2010).
13 Gavin Cawthra, ‘Security Governance in South Africa’, African Security Review 14, no. 3 (2005): 95–105; Jackson, ‘SSR and Post-Conflict Reconstruction The Armed Wing of State Building’; Ursula C. Schroeder, Fairlie Chappuis, and Deniz Kocak, ‘Security Sector Reform and the Emergence of Hybrid Security Governance’, International Peacekeeping 21, no. 2 (2014): 214–30.
14 Albrecht Schnabel and Hans Born, Security Sector Reform: Narrowing the Gap between Theory and Practice (Geneva: DCAF, 2011), 19.
15 Ibid., 5–6.
16 Jackson, ‘SSR and Post-Conflict Reconstruction’, 124.
17 Schroeder, Chappuis, and Kocak, ‘Security Sector Reform and the Emergence of Hybrid Security Governance’.
18 Greene and Rynn, ‘Linking and Co-Ordinating DDR and SSR for Human Security after Conflict’, 8.
19 Louise Anten, et al., ‘Conference Background Paper’, in Whole-of- Government Approaches (WGA) to Security System Reform (SSR) (The Hague: Clingendael Institute, 2008), 1–29.
20 Albrecht Schnabel and Vanessa Farr, eds., Back to the Roots: Security Sector Reform and Development (Geneva: Lit Verlag, 2012).
21 Rebecca Ball, email message to author, February 22, 2016.
22 Mark Sedra, ‘Towards Second Generation Security Sector Reform’, in The Future of Security Sector Reform, ed. Mark Sedra (Waterloo: Centre for International Governance Information (CIGI), 2010), 102–16.
23 Albrecht Schnabel, ‘Ideal Requirements Versus Real Environments in Security Sector Reform’, in Security Sector Reform in Challenging Environments, ed. Hans Born and Albrecht Schnabel (Munster: LIT, 2009), 3–36.
24 SSR In a Nutshell, Manual for Introductory Training on Security Sector Reform.
25 Finer, The Man on Horseback, 5.
26 Douglas L. Bland, ‘Patterns in Liberal Democratic Civil-Military Relations’, Armed Forces & Society 27, no. 4 (July 1, 2001): 525–40.
27 Sabine Mannitz, ‘The ‘Democratic Soldier’: Comparing Concepts and Practices in Europe’, DCAF SSR Paper (Geneva: DCAF, 2013), 19.
28 Schiff, ‘Civil-Military Relations Reconsidered’.
29 DCAF (2012) SSR In a Nutshell. Manual for Introductory Training on Security Sector Reform. Geneva: DCAF ISSAT.
30 Schnabel and Born, Security Sector Reform: Narrowing the Gap between Theory and Practice, 56.
31 Mark Sedra, ‘The Hollowing-out of the Liberal Peace Project in Afghanistan: The Case of Security Sector Reform’, Central Asian Survey 32, no. 3 (2013): 377.
32 Sedra, ‘Towards Second Generation Security Sector Reform’, 108.
33 Sedra, ‘The Hollowing-out of the Liberal Peace Project in Afghanistan’, 379.
34 OECD, Security System Reform and Governance, 44.
35 Richard Youngs, ‘Exploring “Non-Western Democracy”’, Journal of Democracy 26, no. 4 (2015): 140–55.
36 Greene and Rynn, ‘Linking and Co-Ordinating DDR and SSR for Human Security after Conflict’; W Andy Knight, ‘Linking DDR and SSR in Post Conflict Peace-Building in Africa: An Overview’, African Journal of Political Science and International Relations 4, no. 1 (2010): 29–54; Sean McFate, The Link Between DDR and SSR in Conflict- Affected Countries (Washington DC, 2010).
37 Harold Lasswell, ‘The Garrison State’, American Journal of Sociology 46, no. 4 (1941): 455–68; Stanislav Andreski, Military Organiszation and Society (University of California Press, 1968); Michael C. Desch, ‘Soldiers, States and Structures: The End of the Cold War and Weakening U.S. Civilian Control’, Armed Forces & Society 24, no. 3 (1998): 389–406.
38 Huntington, The Soldier and the State, 315.
39 Aurel Croissant, David Kuehn, and Philip Lorenz, ‘Breaking With the Past? Civil-Military Relations in the Emerging Democracies of East Asia’, Policy Studies (15471349), Policy Studies Papers (Honolulu: East-West Center, 2012).