Rethinking disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs

Abstract

This article introduces the special issue on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) and ‘Armed Non-Statutory Actors’ (ANSAs), whose title we prefer to the less precise label of Armed Non-State Actors. The understanding that DDR programs are essential in helping to prevent the recurrence of war in post-conflict situations is at the heart of current peacebuilding practice and the academic literature on peacekeeping and stabilization. However, the changing strategic context of DDR programs and in particular the proliferation of ANSAs presents new challenges, the responses to which have been characterized as ‘second generation’ DDR. The changing context poses new questions and forces us to rethink assumptions and templates of DDR as the concept is blurred and expanded. The main question is if it makes sense to hold on to the concept or whether the assumptions associated with it will impede the rethinking of templates for violence reduction in the future.