Plus Ça Change? The Dynamics of Security Sector Reform in Zimbabwe, 2009–2013

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Noyes
Keyword(s):  
Political Influence ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Security Sector Reform ◽  
National Union ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
Opposition Parties

This chapter discusses the elements that influenced and constrained Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Zimbabwe during the country’s 2009 to 2013 power-sharing government period. The chapter argues that the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s (ZANU-PF) historically rooted symbiotic links with the security sector and the regional solidarity politics of ZANU-PF’s ruling fellow African liberation struggle parties, greatly undermined SSR in Zimbabwe. Thabo Mbeki, of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), an ostensibly ‘neutral’ mediator between ZANU-PF and opposition parties in the power-sharing talks, negotiated an agreement that lacked precise detail on the nature of SSR and how its implementation would be enforced. Coupled with ZANU-PF’s obstruction of attempts to delink the party from the security sector, and opposition parties’ lack of expertise in SSR issues and diplomacy, SSR faltered. The chapter further argues that in the absence of SSR, ZANU-PF was able to use the security sector to out-manoeuvre opposition parties in the power-sharing government and win the 2013 elections decisively. The failure of SSR in the power-sharing phase has had powerful consequences for civil–military relations after 2013. The security sector’s influence on politics mounted, culminating in the military staging a coup against president Robert Mugabe in 2017, which heightened the military’s political influence.

In Between Military and Militia: The Dynamics of the Security Forces in the Communal Conflict in Ambon

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Najib Azca
Keyword(s):  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
Security Sector Reform ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Communal Conflict ◽  
Military Relations

AbstractThis article presents and discusses the role of the security forces in the communal conflict in Ambon, Indonesia. Though it shares the view articulated by many scholars and social obervers that the security forces played partisan roles in prolonging the Ambon conflict, it criticizes the tendency to overstate their role and see them as a single homogenous actor. Based on extensive research and fieldwork, this paper argues that the dynamics of the role of the security forces in the conflict in Ambon evolved in concert with the dynamics of the conflict itself and was influenced by both local and national factors and their respective actors. It also examines the issue in the context of civil-military relations in the aftermath of the collapse of the authoritarian regime, with particular attention paid to its impact on security sector reform.

scholarly journals State capture, hybrid regimes, and security sector reform

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-126
Author(s):  
Sonja Stojanović-Gajić ◽  
Dušan Pavlović
Keyword(s):  
Political Competition ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Hybrid Regimes ◽  
Security Sector Reform ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
State Capture ◽  
Public Resources ◽  
Military Relations

In this introduction into the special issue on state capture and security sector governance, we argue that state capture is a relevant concept that helps us understand the current autocratisation and the rise of hybrid regimes. We argue that the extraction of public resources via party patronage, privatization of public administration, judiciary, security institutions, and media are vital for influencing political competition. In the second part of the article, we argue that the concept of state capture brings added value to the understanding of security governance and transformations. We show why the parts or whole of security and justice institutions are the inevitable targets of state capture and what it means to understand the success of security sector reform (SSR). Finally, we examine a range of possible positions of the security sector within the captors and what it means for both the literature on state capture and civil-military relations.

Sudan coup attempt may reopen political faultlines

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Power Sharing ◽  
Civilian Control ◽  
Security Sector Reform ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Internal Security ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Civilian Leaders ◽  
Coup Attempt

Significance Military and civilian leaders within the current power-sharing government have since accused each other of creating the conditions that prompted the coup, in an escalating confrontation over security sector reform that risks becoming a greater threat to the transition than the coup attempt itself. Impacts The more aggressively the commission established to dismantle the former regime conducts its work, the more the risk of coups will rise. Concrete guarantees of immunity for past crimes could encourage some (but not all) military leaders to consider more serious reforms. Civilian leaders might revive discussions shelved last year about creating a new internal security organ under civilian control.

scholarly journals Burundi after the 2015 Elections: A Conference Report

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Grauvogel
Keyword(s):  
Conference Report ◽  
Term Limits ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Security Sector Reform ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Successful Transition

The unrest in Burundi following President Nkurunziza's controversial re-election has put the country high on the international agenda, but research on the resurgence of turmoil is still in its infancy. A workshop held on 3 and 4 March 2016 in Freiburg, Germany, whose focus was Burundi after the 2015 elections, aimed to go beyond short-term accounts of the current unrests and extend past theorising in an attempt to address the current conflict. Special attention was paid to the interaction between external attempts to address the crisis and domestic contestation. The issues examined included the construction of Burundi as a case of successful transition to peace, the conflict's neglected legacies, and the (perceived) inadequacy of past approaches to address the current crisis, such as security sector reform, power sharing, and term limits. This also allowed us to rethink approaches developed to understand peacebuilding in Burundi since 2000.

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