Security Sector Reform Resource Centre

SSR Issue Paper: “Policing in Palestine: Analyzing the EU Police Reform Mission in the West Bank”

Geoff Burt — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:36:28 +0000

Police reform in the Palestinian Territories has faced many challenges. Rebuilding the police force in a post-conflict environment is not an easy task, and must take into account the community’s needs in order to build legitimacy. In 2006, the European Union Police Coordinating Office for Palestinian Police Support was established to support the short-term objectives

The War on Drugs as a Threat to SSR

Michael Lawrence — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:50:38 +0000

In some ways Mexico’s full-fledged war against its drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) advances the goals of SSR. Behind the scenes of bloody confrontation, police forces at various levels are undergoing a process of vetting and reform intended to root out corruption and improve capacity and coordination. Similarly, the country’s judicial system is advancing a modernization

SSR Issue Paper: Strategic Support to Security Sector Reform in Afghanistan, 2001-2010

Geoff Burt — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:00:19 +0000

The lack of strategic direction and political agreement in security sector reform (SSR) in Afghanistan is an ongoing struggle. The latest CIGI SSR Issue Paper by Tom Hamilton-Baillie and Christian Dennys is entitled, “Strategic Support to Security Sector Reform in Afghanistan, 2001-2010″ and focuses on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, in addition to police and army

A Complex Systems Approach to the Drug War in Mexico: Resources, Violence and Order

Geoff Burt — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:04:48 +0000

CIGI Researcher Michael Lawrence has published a paper at the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Complexity and Innovation entitled “A Complex Systems Approach to the Drug War in Mexico: Resources, Violence and Order.” While other accounts stress the chaotic turmoil of the conflict, this approach begins by examining the relationship between the violence and the

SSR Issue Paper: Security Sector Governance in Pakistan: Progress, But Many Challenges Persist

Geoff Burt — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:09:05 +0000

The US Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound on May 2, 2011 brought into question the Pakistani army’s domination over nearly all aspects of the state. Pakistanis wondered how these events could have occurred right under the nose of the military. The latest SSR Issue Paper examines the prospects for security sector governance

SSR Issue Paper: Financing Security Sector Reform

Geoff Burt — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:52:12 +0000

The latest paper in CIGI’s SSR Issue Papers series by Alejandro Pachon focuses on the size of external support for SSR activities, showing that agencies often discuss the effectiveness of SSR programming without the benefit of a comprehensive system for tracking SSR assistance. It examines the information that is often used to demonstrate how international

New Report on Organized Crime and Urban Violence in Latin America

Michael Lawrence — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:42:39 +0000

From Mexico to Honduras to Ecuador, Latin American societies are increasingly buffeted by the complex threat of violent criminality – from street gangs to transnational organized crime – and their governments are today mounting highly militarized responses to the challenge. A new Brookings Institution report by Vanda Felbab-Brown (entitled ”Bringing the State to the Slum: Confronting

New DCAF Reports on Gender and SSR

Michael Lawrence — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:33:48 +0000

The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces has just released two volumes on gender and the security sector. The first, entitled The Security Sector and Gender in West Africa, provides complete profiles of the fourteen countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) along two lines of inquiry: do security

Examining the Afghanistan exit strategy

Geoff Burt — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:34:27 +0000

The three pillars of the international community’s exit strategy from Afghanistan–training the Afghan security forces, forging a regional strategy and coming to a political settlement with insurgent groups–are teetering, according to an editorial by the SSR Resource Centre’s Mark Sedra, Geoff Burt and Michael Lawrence. Despite massive investments in training, only one army unit is

“A Cautionary Tale: Plan Colombia’s Lessons for U.S. Policy Toward Mexico and Beyond”

Michael Lawrence — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:31:52 +0000

As the drug war continues to expand southward, a growing number of countries (including Honduras, Guatemala and Ecuador) are following Mexico’s lead by deploying the military in an internal security role to directly confront the drug gangs. The D.E.A. even deploys commando-style squads to support counter-narcotics in Central America and the Caribbean. In addition to