Security sector reform – theory and practice

Security Sector Reform (SSR) is a concept and activity of the democratic transformation of defence, justice and rule of law systems. In accordance with the United Nations approach, SSR is critical to the consolidation of peace and stability, promoting poverty reduction, rule of law and good governance, extending legitimate state authority and preventing countries from relapsing into conflict. Over the last few decades, with many countries evolving and developing democratic processes, the concept has gained interest and popularity in international organisations and states heading towards a positive change. In the past, full SSR activities had been successfully conducted in central and east European post-communist countries. Nowadays, the process is carried out among African and Middle East countries, in some of them this being extremely challenging. A considerable degree of complexity characterizes the SSR processes. For this reason, a great deal of effort has been exerted with the aim of normalising rules and conditions for conducting SSR. The purpose of these activities is to ensure the widest possible effect of the use of scarce expert resources. SSR is a relatively new area of expertise suffering from a scarcity of literature presenting theory in conjunction with practice. During the research conducted it was assumed that, in spite of a wide array of actions to be executed within SSR in different states, they should be interconnected by a general model which would ensure the greatest effect. The aim of this essay is to present selected theoretical aspects of SSR, essential for increasing the effectiveness of the reforms conducted, illustrated with a practical example of the SSR process in Egypt.