Civil-Military Relations: The Forgotten Foundation of Security Sector Reform

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter P. Tapela
Keyword(s):  
Security Sector Reform ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Military Relations

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.

Policing and the Legacies of Wartime State Predation: Evidence from a Survey and Field Experiment in Liberia

2021 ◽  
pp. 002200272110130
Author(s):  
Robert A. Blair ◽  
Benjamin S. Morse
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Security Sector Reform ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
State Security ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Period

How does violence during civil war shape citizens’ willingness to trust and rely on state security providers in the post-conflict period? Can post-conflict security sector reform restore perceptions of state security forces among victims of wartime state predation? Using a survey and field experiment in Liberia, we show that rebel-perpetrated violence is strongly positively correlated with trust and reliance on the police after conflict is over, while state-perpetrated violence is not. Victims of wartime state predation are, however, more likely to update their priors about the police in response to positive interactions with newly reformed police officers. We also show that abuses committed by police officers in the post-conflict period are negatively correlated with citizens’ perceptions of the police, potentially counteracting the positive effects of security sector reform. We corroborate our quantitative findings with detailed qualitative observations of interactions between civilians and police officers in the field.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document