1.0 Introduction
The world is currently facing the most complex and challenging security environment in recent history. In the last 20 years, a new dimension of threats to security have emerged and in the process altered the way security is conceived within the discourse of the global security landscape. Dealing with these challenges requires a versatile and robust security sector. From the 1990s, Security Sector Reform (henceforth denoted SSR) emerged as a key concept, which became widely accepted by both development practitioners and security experts, following its proposition to a larger public in a speech by Clare Short, Minister for International Development of the United Kingdom, in London in 1998.
Since then, SSR emerged as a
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The paper begins by examining the challenges to SSR, before looking at the nexus between SSR and SST. The paper then expands on the concept of transformative security reform by outlining specific policies designed to promote structural arms control and socio-political safeguards against militarism.
1.1 The Challenges of the Security Sector Reform (SSR) Nicole Ball referred the Security Sector as ‘the security family’, that includes: the security forces (military, paramilitary, police), the agencies of government and parliament responsible for oversight of these forces, informal security forces, the judiciary and correction system, private security firms and civil society. There are certainly varying definitions of the security sector in both the academic and policy literature.
According to the UN Secretary General’s report, SSR is defined as a “process of assessment, review and implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation led by national authorities that has as its goal the enhancement of effective and accountable security for the State and its peoples without discrimination and with full respect for human rights and the rule of
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These reforms have to occur in an environment in which peace itself does not necessarily signify the end of violence but relatively secure environment for the reforms to flourish but in which peace settlements can continue to be contested. However, peace agreements can temporarily be slowed the situation that may exacerbate the warring parties to regroup and replenish arms supplies, as the case was in Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Angola. Therefore, actors involved in peace building face somewhat daunting tasks in simultaneously demobilizing and disarming the armed factions and wider society, whilst also re-imposing effective and impartial law and
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Barnet, Richard J. “The Ideology of the National Security State”. The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 26, No. 4. 1985, pp. 483-500
The Security Service (M15) is the United Kingdom's nation security intelligence agency. The functions of M15 are defined under section 1 of the Security Service Act 1989, to protect the national security, safeguard the nation's economic well-being and support other agencies in the prevention and detection of serious crime. Its primary responsibility is for domestic security and surveillance (Her Majesty’s Government, 2001).
Patel, Ana Cutter. "Transitional Justice, DDR, and Security Sector Reform." ICTJ. http://ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-DDR-SSR-ResearchBrief-2010-English.pdf (accessed May 18, 2014).
In the words of American author Robert Heinlein, “An armed society is a polite society and manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” This represents how dangerous endeavors may change the course of our way of life through diverse ideals. For example, laws, directions or political standards can have varying effects on social structures, especially when we grow intolerant to change and accustom to habitual routines or systematically oppress those without a voice. Accordingly societal components, such as, reputation, values or citizenry is influenced when overseeing powers involved with keeping one protected and free from a situation of constrained alliance ends up being an unknown social crossroads.
Following World War II, the beginning of the Cold War and the U.S. vs. Soviet fight for global dominance prompted the U.S. government's rapid increase in military spending. The central foreign and domestic policy goal of the U.S. was to contain and eventually deter Soviet influence at home and abroad, a goal that paved the way for a significant increase in the influence of the military establishment in both foreign and domestic policy. Ever since the era of increased military influence, the military and government have kept the United States in consistent military operations in order to provide a market for weapons contractors. This military-industrial complex, although rarely discussed, is one of the, if not the single most important factor
Wendt, Alexander. “Constructing International Politics.” International Security. Cambridge: President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995. 71-81. Print.
Ungerer, C ‘The International Drivers of Australia’s National Security’, in Australian Strategic Policy Institute. September 2008, viewed 19th May 2010, .
...rmation of the United States of America and also some functions like the safety of employees and property. The relation of private security to criminal justice system and to the nation protection and welfare and security needs to gather uniformly and accurate information on the private security business. This will contain the role and duty of private security as well as meeting or junction with policing, homeland security, corrections and other related area. By constructing and developing the data it is assured that the information gathered is accurate and maybe useful to private security functions.
‘It is clear that the private security industry has experienced substantial growth, particularly if one compares the size of the industry in 1950 with that in 1995. In 1950 there were a dozen or so companies involved in the provision of security services and products; now there are thousands, in what could be described as a multi-billion industry (George and Button : 30).’ Policing is now being widely offered by institutions other than the state, most importantly by private companies on a commercial basis and by communities on a volunteer basis (Bayley and Shearing, 1996).’ According to South, Jones and Newburn, private security industry in Britain has grown from the post war years from a few specialised firms catering for the rich folk to a multi-billion pound industry (South, 1988; Jones and Newburn1998). Johnston echoes the fact that there has been a significant increase in private forms of policing over the years in South Africa and many countries including Western democracies and other societies in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa (Johnston, 1992).
In many communities it is said that many areas are starting to see an increase in private security officers coming in instead of police. With private organizations coming in to do police like work in order to keep the peace there is a question on the way they do things. Security officers can only
Evans, Gareth and Mohamed Sahnoun. “The Responsibility to Protect.” Foreign Affairs v81 i6 (2002). Accessed 1 March 2006 . .
The military is tasked with the duty and responsibility of protecting the nation from external attacks and managing any attacks that may happen. Over the years, countries across the world have engaged in conflicts originating from differences in policies and invasion of privacy and unfair treatment of citizens in foreign countries. In...
In order to portrait the necessity of collaboration and security of social communities one must consider the fact that the human, as a social being has developed a series of social structures. This vision details quite readily what has become a major preoccupation with security threats in the world today: challenges to statehood itself, rather than challenges from interstate rivalry are “asymmetric” threats, nuclear proliferation, transnational criminal networks and the environment as a source of threat, as well as global inequality as a threat. It also outlines that the threats to “human security” have become of increasing relevance to the discourse of security.
According to Buzan there are five main sectors of security studies, alongside Military,Political ,Economic, Societal and Environmental Security. Societal Security referred to sustainable development of traditional patterns of language, cultural, religious and national identities and customs of states (Buzan, 1991a).