Summary How has Kup Women for Peace (KWP), a community organisation in Papua New Guinea, contributed to reducing violence and ensuring free and fair elections? What progress has KWP made in changing attitudes about women and their roles in society in the Kup sub-district? This article from Gender & Development describes the work of KWP….
What are the implications of the massive growth of private security companies in Kenya? This article, published by the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, argues that government failures have driven the proliferation of private security companies (PSCs) over the past two decades. This booming industry may itself represent a security threat if the state does…
How has Uganda attempted to reintegrate abductees and former combatants from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) back into civilian life? This article from Conflict, Security and Development analyses disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) in northern Uganda and the challenges facing attempts to reintegrate former LRA combatants. It finds that the impact of Uganda’s informal DDR…
Summary Does community policing work in Latin America? What can be learned from experiences of community policing in Mexico City? This paper analyses the experiences of community policing in Mexico City since 2006, and critiques the theory and practice of the approach applied to Latin American countries. Community policing is widely promoted as beneficial to…
Security sector (SS) spending in Sierra Leone needs to be integrated into all aspects of the country’s public finance management (PFM) system. This report, authored by Peter Middlebrook and Sharon Miller, was commissioned by the United Kingdom (UK) Department for International Development (DFID). It charts the current level and structure of security-related expenditures and assesses…
Summary How much progress has been made with security sector reform (SSR) in Liberia? This Strategic Studies Institute paper examines SSR in Liberia and argues that while the United Nations (UN) and the United States (US) have made a start with police and military reform, they have not done nearly enough. The UN, US, as…
How effective is oversight of the police in Brazil? What are the strengths and weaknesses of current institutional mechanisms for police control? This working paper from the Centre for Brazilian Studies analyses the problem of subjecting the Brazilian police to truly effective control and oversight. It argues that the current system has been an almost…
Summary Does military business matter? What economic, political and military impact does the existence of military business operations have? This book examines the reasons for and impact of military business operations in both peace and war. It argues that military business is important because of its impact on national economies, civil-military relations and the overall…
The three-day war between Eritrea and Djibouti in 2008 is a reminder that Africa’s sub-region remains one of the most unstable and conflict-prone in the world and lacks conditions for a workable peace and security order. This brief, published by the InterAfrica Group, assesses the nature and course of the conflict over borders and its…
Mali’s resolution of its severe ethnic conflict involving the Tuareg nomads in the 1990s may provide useful insights into conflict resolution in Africa as a whole. This Strategic Studies Institute study describes the nature of the Malian solution and indicates the reasons for its success to date. A key reason for success being that instead…
