The Centre for Security Governance has just published its latest CSG Paper, “Non-State Security Providers and Political Formation in South Sudan: The Case of Western Equatoria’s Arrows Boys” written by Mareike Schomerus and Anouk S. Rigterink. This is the second of four papers produced as part of the CSG’s project on Non-State Security Providers and Political Formation in Conflict-Affected States. The project was made possible by generous financial support from the Gerda Henkel Foundation.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The arrow boys, a militia in South Sudan’s south-western region were established as a civilian protection mechanism. The arrow boys are active in an area that has in recent years seen a resurgence of support for reinstating a particular position of traditional leadership, the Zande King. The arrow boys and the Zande King could be regarded a nonstate answer to the official government. However, this paper argues that the dividing line in how citizens relate to the arrow boys and the Zande King does not correspond to the state and non-state dichotomy. Using empirical quantitative and qualitative data, the paper shows that support for an actor seems is divided along models of governance- military and civilian— that actors represent. The paper concludes with implications of this finding for understanding state formation processes and security sector reform (SSR), suggesting that SSR requires a focus on the civilian modes of governance first.
ABOUT THE NON-STATE SECURITY PROVIDERS PROJECT
The 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” and conflict-affected areas may feature unique and unconventional security structures. The project has explored 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 questions are: how does the presence of diverse nonstate security providers affect the process of state formation and state-building, and how should this shape donor state-building approaches? 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 state-building and security sector reform programs.
Tags: non state actors, publications, South Sudan
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