GPPi fellow discusses UN Security Sector Reform activities

At a conference on German Engagement in Support of Security Sector Reform and Security Sector Governance, held 4 – 5 June 2012 outside Berlin, GPPi Fellow Philipp Rotmann gave a presentation on recent developments in United Nations activities in security sector reform (SSR). The event was hosted in Strausberg by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation together with the Information and Communication Academy of the Federal Armed Forces. The event’s original German title was Deutsches Engagement zur Unterstützung von SSR/​SSG – Erfahrungen und Zukunftsperspektiven.

As part of a panel on current international developments in SSR, Rotmann laid out the growth in Security Council mandates for UN peace operations to engage with host nation governments on reforms in their security sectors and the resulting institutional developments in the UN system. Conceptually, he argued, the UN has come a long way in bridging two longstanding gaps between different understandings of the SSR concept. The first gap is between a focus on democratic accountability and control of security institutions and a focus on effectiveness and capacity. The second gap is between a traditional Western donor perspective and a longstanding mistrust among recipient states that SSR is a pretext for Western donors to exercise influence. In practice, it turns out that the second gap has largely been bridged as a result of major efforts on the part of leading African governments, such as those of South Africa and Nigeria, while the first gap continues to be quite entrenched in the institutional setup of the UN bureaucracy.

Rotmann argued that a self-critical analysis and learning effort on the German and European experience in recent interventions in Afghanistan as well as in the Balkans would be a natural starting point for broader engagement with security sector reform. Only with reference to specific experiences in these countries will the crucial relevance of a deeply political understanding of SSR become apparent and lead to greater conceptual and operational engagement on the part of the German government.

Sharing the panel with Rotmann were Ursula Schröder of the Free University Berlin and Hans Born of the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. The workshop was held under Chatham House rules.