International approaches to the Afghan security sector over the last nine years have exhibited the tendencies of security sector reform (SSR), counterinsurgency (COIN) and stabilization, and exposed the inherent tensions between them. CIGI’s latest Afghanistan paper, “Watching While the Frog Boils: Strategic Folly in the Afghan Security Sector” argues that while an SSR, COIN or 
SSR Blog
Monthly Archive
October | 2011
CIGI Afghanistan Paper: “Watching While the Frog Boils: Strategic Folly in the Afghan Security Sector”
By: Geoff Burt | Monday, October 31st, 2011NATO’s Role in Libya and Syria?
By: Michael Lawrence | Friday, October 28th, 2011NATO voted today to end its mission in Libya on October 31 even though Libya’s National Transitional Council asked the Organization to stay until at least the end of the year. A recent opinion piece by Mark Sedra indeed argues that Libya provided NATO with a quick win that did not entail troops on the
New USIP Special Report on Police Reform in Iraq
By: Michael Lawrence | Thursday, October 20th, 2011SSR guru Robert Perito has just published the report “The Iraq Federal Police: U.S. Police Building Under Fire” at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). The report examines American efforts to train and equip a police force capable of dealing with the heavily-armed insurgency and militias that have undermined Iraq’s security in recent years,
Mexican Civil Society Hopes to Indict President and Drug Traffickers at ICC: A Follow-Up from Kristin Bricker
By: Michael Lawrence | Monday, October 17th, 2011Last Month, the SSR Resource Centre published Kristin Bricker’s report Military Justice and Impunity In Mexico’s Drug War which explores the legal issues raised by the Government’s deployment of the military to confront the country’s major drug organizations. In a further twist in the judicial side of the drug war, leaders of Mexico’s civil society
Three part series outlines the legacy of the Afghan mission
By: Geoff Burt | Friday, October 14th, 2011CIGI Senior Fellow Mark Sedra has written a series of articles examining the legacy of the Afghan conflict, which unfortunately for Afghans appears likely to be continuing violence and instability. In the first installment, “Afghanistan Will Pay for NATO’s Failures,” Sedra argues that a closer examination of the numbers of Afghan security forces trained by
Interesting discussion on tackling corruption on ISSAT Community of Practice blog
By: Geoff Burt | Thursday, October 13th, 2011The International Security Sector Advisory Team (ISSAT) at the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces operates a blog featuring the analysis of their SSR practitioner community. Recently, they published two commentaries on tackling corruption in the context of SSR programming. The first, by Nicholas Seymour, Africa Advisor at Transparency International’s Defence and
UN Security Council Debates the Future of SSR
By: Michael Lawrence | Wednesday, October 12th, 2011Today the United Nations Security Council is debating the future of security sector reform. Under its presidency of the Council, the Nigerian delegation has circulated a brief backgrounder presenting three key issues for discussion, which is available here. The first concerns the linkages between SSR and broader processes of peacebuilding and conflict prevention. The second
Haiti’s Plan for a New Army
By: Michael Lawrence | Tuesday, October 11th, 2011The SSR Resource Centre’s own Geoff Burt has just published an op-ed in The Globe and Mail discussing the Haitian government’s recently unveiled intention to rebuild its army. He argues that the move is unnecessary in relation to Haiti’s security needs and potentially dangerous given the history of repression and abuse by Haitian soldier’s before
Gen. (Ret.) Stanley A. McChrystal Interviewed at CFR
By: Michael Lawrence | Friday, October 7th, 2011Last night U.S. General (ret.) Stanley A. McChrystal, former Commander of ISAF forces in Afghanistan, gave an hour-long interview at the Council on Foreign Relations as part of the HBO History Makers series. The talk can be viewed here. The discussion focused on his experiences in Afghanistan and raised several important issues about SSR in
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