Eurocentric and Ahistorical? The Concept of SSR and Its Limits

Abstract

Until the beginning of the 1990s, the reform of a state's security sector was largely confined to the military, defined by external actors as capacity-building to buttress client regimes in the midst of the Cold War. Only after the end of the Cold War, in the context of the third wave of democratization and the evolution of ever-expanding peacekeeping/peace-building missions, was the reform of the security sector increasingly regarded as crucial not only for democratization efforts, but also for stabilizing a country after political transition from authoritarian rule or armed conflict. This broader understanding of peace-building legitimizes more intrusive interventions by outside actors, entailing the transformation of those political, economic and social conditions which have led to violent conflicts in the first place (Paris 2010; Richmond 2011). Such an understanding assumed that lasting peace can be generated through controlled social and political reforms along predefined lines.