The Centre for Security Governance (CSG) is pleased to announce a new series of reports as part of its ‘Non-State Security Providers and Political Formation in Conflict-Affected States’ project, funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. Four CSG Papers will present the findings of three case studies—Afghanistan, Somalia and South Sudan— alongside a synthesis report providing a comparative analysis of the links between statebuilding and non-state security providers in fragile and conflict-affected countries.
List of publications
# 2 | Non-State Security Providers and Political Formation in South Sudan (April 2016)
By Mareike Schomerus and Anouk S. Rigterink
This CSG paper analyzes the impact of the arrow boys, a militia in South Sudan’s south-western region established as a civilian protection mechanism, and the resurgence of support for reinstating a particular position of traditional leadership, the Zande King, on security governance and state formation in South Sudan.
# 1 | Non-State Security Providers and Political Formation in Afghanistan (March 2016)
By Deedee Derksen
This CSG paper examines how diverse non-state security providers – warlords, tribal leaders and local strongmen – affect the process of state formation and statebuilding in Afghanistan. Its analysis of the nature and scope of international engagement of informal security actors in northeast and southwest Afghanistan suggests that external donors have not primarily promoted liberal peace, but rather a hybrid political order.
About the Non-State Security Providers & Political Formation Project
This project considers new aspects of the relationship between security and development by examining how the presence of non-state security providers affects political development in conflict-affected societies. The established “security-development nexus” maintains that security and development are mutually reinforcing, and conversely that insecurity and underdevelopment are mutually reinforcing. While these links are of obvious importance, more recent work suggests two other relationships of equal significance: between insecurity and development insofar as violent conflict may fuel political formation; and between underdevelopment and security insofar as supposedly “underdeveloped” areas may feature unique and unconventional security structures. The project explores these largely uncharted relationships by examining processes of political formation in societies that host a diverse array of non-state security providers and assessing the effects of the latter on processes of state formation, deliberate state-building interventions and the emergence of unconventional governance structures. Drawing on three case studies—Afghanistan, Somalia and South Sudan—the project’s main research question is: how does the presence of diverse non-state security providers affect the process of state formation? The overarching goal of the project is to stimulate a discourse and make initial policy recommendations on how donors can better engage non-state security structures in the context of security sector reform and broader state-building programs.
Funding for this project was provided by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.
Tags: Centre for Security Governance, non-state security, publications, research
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