Mitigating the Risks of "Wicked Problems" in Security Sector Reform
Abi Watson contributed to an edited volume by the NATO Centre of Excellence for Security Force Assistance, entitled “Enhancing Stabilization and Strategic Partnership in a Post-Conflict Environment: A Comprehensive Approach to Human Security.” The book brought together academics, think tanks and former and serving members of the military.
In her chapter, Abi argues that, in societies recovering from conflict, small-scale efforts that do not grapple with structural issues are unlikely to be effective and may even sow the seeds of the next conflict. You cannot train a few officials to be less corrupt when they exist in a system that is little more than a patronage network serving a few elites. It is not enough to train some soldiers to protect civilians, if you leave systematic racism, sexism and general impunity untouched. Worse, you cannot arm an ethnically biased army and then be surprised when they continue to commit atrocities. In each case, training without work on wider issues is likely to exacerbate ethnic, political, economic and social divisions – and even may increase the risk of violent conflict or the chance that civilians are harmed.
To help understand these challenges, Abi has coined two “wicked problems” that plague internationally-delivered security sector reform. The first problem is that training in military or police tactics (or even in human rights or gender sensitivity) will be unable to achieve anything when better-trained officials go back to unreformed institutions. The second problem: international training is almost exclusively delivered in political contexts that are deeply fragmented by conflict and civil war and where a monopoly on the use of force does not exist. She then turns to some small examples of (albeit limited) success. She explores how, for instance, small training efforts can have more of a positive effect – even without huge investment in structural reform – when they use cross-departmental teams to develop strategies at the strategic, operational and tactical levels and when they plan across longer timelines. Similarly, intervening states can better grapple with the lack of a monopoly of force through more localized solutions and more granular monitoring systems, which – if done well – can create enduring change on a smaller scale.
Abi Watson’s chapter is part of the volume Enhancing Stabilization and Strategic Partnership in a Post-Conflict Environment: A Comprehensive Approach to Human Security, edited by Ludovica Glorioso and Susan Pond, published in 2020 by the NATO Security Force Assistance Centre of Excellence.
