Security Sector Reform in Challenging Environments

More often than not Security Sector Reform (SSR) takes place against many odds, in difficult, barely enabling, less-than-ideal political, security, economic and social environments. Such difficult contexts are characterized by post-conflict environments, transitional political arrangements, widespread corruption, ongoing violence, imprecise, open-ended or non-inclusive peace agreements and post-conflict architectures, lack of resources, 'stolen' or impending elections or referenda - among others all circumstances that stand in the way of full-fledged, holistic and sustainable SSR efforts. Following an overview of ideal SSR requirements, contrasted with typical obstacles inhibiting SSR efforts, the main body of the book offers evidence-based analyses of positive and negative SSR experiences in barely enabling environments, drawing on the experiences of specific national and international SSR programmes and experiences in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. Lessons learned from these experiences are meant to feed into theoretical rethinking and re-conceptualizing of SSR policy frameworks and help practitioners cope with the complex obstacles in designing and implementing effective and sustainable SSR in challenging environments.