Since April 2014, Russia had been waging a proxy war in eastern Ukraine. Although no war was officially declared, Russia’s covert and overt support was crucial in financing, equipping, providing personnel, and supplying intelligence to the pro-Russian separatists. Still, even with such support, pro-Russian separatist rebels proved unable to counter Ukraine’s military advances. As a 
SSR Blog
Monthly Archive
August | 2014
Re-assessing Post-Cold War Assumptions after Russia’s Gambit in Ukraine
By: David Meadows | Friday, August 29th, 2014Operation Barkhane: A Show of Force and Political Games in the Sahel-Sahara
By: Amandine Gnanguenon | Thursday, August 28th, 2014On 15 July 2014, French President François Hollande launched Operation Barkhane; a counter-terrorism force intended to hunt down terrorist groups in Sahel countries and prevent them from re-forming. This new mission is the continuation of Operation Serval, which was launched on 11 January 2013 in Mali and had the following three objectives: to stop terrorist
Security Sector Reform: Past, Present…and Future?
By: Megan Price | Wednesday, August 27th, 2014This summer’s headlines have been exhaustingly tragic. From the violent blitzkrieg and beheadings carried out by the Islamic State, to the shocking recklessness of militants in Donetsk and police in Ferguson, insecurity has taken an unsettlingly high civilian toll these past months. And despite their contextual differences, each case demonstrates with equal clarity that ineffective
Security Assistance in Africa: Inside America’s “New Frontier”
By: Eric Muller | Tuesday, August 26th, 2014Several weeks ago at the US-Africa Leaders Summit, President Obama unveiled the Security Governance Initiative (SGI), a new program designed to address security sector governance and improve security capacity in six African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Tunisia. The SGI is the latest in a series of security assistance initiatives that the US
News Roundup: 18 August – 24 August
By: SSR Resource Centre | Monday, August 25th, 2014Want to keep up to date on the SSR field? Once a week, the CSG’s Security Sector Reform Resource Centre project posts pertinent news articles, reports, projects, and event updates on SSR over the past week. Click here to sign-up and have the SSR Weekly News Roundup delivered straight to your inbox every week!
Backgrounder – The Emergence of the Islamic State
By: Matthew Morgan | Friday, August 22nd, 2014The rapid advance in June of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Shām (ISIS) across northern Iraq, capturing its second largest city, Mosul and threatening to advance on Baghdad, stunned global security experts and policy makers alike. The collapse and retreat of the Iraqi army demonstrates, more than anything, the abject failure of American policy
Against the Odds: The Case for Greater Western Intervention in Syria and Iraq
By: Erwin van Veen | Thursday, August 21st, 2014The Syrian civil war is now in its third year and continues unabated. A battlefield resolution remains unlikely: the imminent capture of Aleppo by the regime is being offset by rapid advances of the Islamic State in eastern Syria – taking in the city of Deir-ez-Zour, major oilfields, and nearly all strongpoints on the Euphrates
Cameroon and the Growing Threat of Boko Haram Contagion
By: Ryan Cummings | Wednesday, August 20th, 2014On July 26, a group of heavily armed assailants attacked Kolofata, a Cameroonian town located near the country’s shared border with Nigeria. While there have been no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack, in which three people were killed and the wife of Cameroon’s deputy prime minister was kidnapped, the incursion conformed to the
Timor-Leste: The Continuing Challenge of Police Building and Security Governance
By: Deniz Kocak | Tuesday, August 19th, 2014Twelve years after independence, Timor-Leste currently experiences relative political stability. Even after the pull-out of UN armed personnel at the end of 2012, no serious incidents troubled the country as in 2006 during the violent clashes between members of the police and the military, or the almost deadly assaults on the Timorese President and Prime
News Roundup: 11 August – 17 August
By: SSR Resource Centre | Monday, August 18th, 2014Want to keep up to date on the SSR field? Once a week, the CSG’s Security Sector Reform Resource Centre project posts pertinent news articles, reports, projects, and event updates on SSR over the past week. Click here to sign-up and have the SSR Weekly News Roundup delivered straight to your inbox every week!
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