GPPi launches new research project on building security institutions in Afghanistan and Pakistan

On December 1, GPPi will launch a new pilot research-project on strategy formation in German and U.S. efforts to build security institutions in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Titled Origins of Strategy for Justice and Security Sector Reform in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the project is generously funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research (Deutsche Stiftung Friedensforschung) through their small grants program.

Over the past two decades, building effective and legitimate justice and security institutions has become a central tenet of peace operations by every major actor, from the United States to the United Nations. Justice and security sector reform (JSSR), which includes components such as judicial reform to police and army development, now appears prominently at the center of international stabilization and peacebuilding strategies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Further, national and international peacebuilders expect to rely even more on JSSR in the future, both when they engage in state-building interventions or assist strong yet fragile states.

As a pilot project preparing the ground for additional activities on security governance in the context of GPPi’s Peace and Security program, the study will focus on key strategic choices that shaped the justice and security sector reform strategies of Germany, the United States, NATO and the EU with regard to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the period 2002 – 2010. In doing so, the project builds on GPPi’s experience with police and judicial development as part of UN peace operations and EU crisis management operations, which have been the subjects of GPPi research projects since 2006.