Democratizing security sector governance in West Africa: trends and challenges

Bryden, Alan; N'Diaye, Boubacar; Olonisakin, Funmi

doi:10.1080/14678800500170167

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…As informative as these studies have been, the vast majority focus on the USA, UK, and Australia, and may not generalize to developing countries, much less to weak and war-torn states (Braga et al 2014; Sahin et al 2017). While a number of scholars have explored “best practices” in post-conflict security sector reform (e.g., Bryden, N’Diaye, and Olonisakin 2008), few have addressed whether or how these reforms affect the relationship between civilians and state institutions. Moreover, these latter studies are almost all observational, and many rely on anecdotal evidence alone.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Establishing the Rule of Law in Weak and War-torn States: Evidence from a Field Experiment with the Liberian National Police

2019

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How to restore citizens’ trust and cooperation with the police in the wake of civil war? We report results from an experimental evaluation of the Liberian National Police’s (LNP) “Confidence Patrols” program, which deployed teams of newly retrained, better-equipped police officers on recurring patrols to rural communities across three Liberian counties over a period of 14 months. We find that the program increased knowledge of the police and Liberian law, enhanced security of property rights, and reduced the incidence of some types of crime, notably simple assault and domestic violence. The program did not, however, improve trust in the police, courts, or government more generally. We also observe higher rates of crime reporting in treatment communities, concentrated almost entirely among those who were disadvantaged under prevailing customary mechanisms of dispute resolution. We consider implications of these findings for post-conflict policing in Liberia and weak and war-torn states more generally.

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confidence: 99%

Establishing the Rule of Law in Weak and War-torn States: Evidence from a Field Experiment with the Liberian National Police

2019

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“…A third policy pathway thus involves reimagining the centrality of policing in transitions to peace. Critical, feminist, and abolitionist scholars have long argued that strengthening security capacities historically serves to protect those who already exercise power, failing to attend to the situated in securities of ordinary people at society’s margins (Bryden and Olonisakin 2010; Olonisakin 2020; Olonisakin, Hendricks, and Okech 2015; Tickner 1992). This article demonstrates that most self-described threats to peace derive from a lack of access to sustenance, basic welfare, and personal safety (Firchow 2018).…”

Section: Cycles Of Violence: Conclusion and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policing Insecurity

Lake

2022

Am Polit Sci Rev

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In environments of seemingly intractable conflict, how should we understand the role of state capacity building and security-sector reform in transitions to peace? Prevailing wisdom suggests that a strong state security apparatus mitigates cyclical violence and aids in transitions to predictable, rule-governed behavior. Yet growing attention to police brutality in institutionalized democracies calls this assumption into question. Drawing on a multiyear study of war making and state making in eastern DR Congo, this article interrogates logics of police capacity building, analyzing how and why reform efforts intended to bolster the state’s monopoly on violence frequently fail to curb the unrest they seek to disrupt. I argue that enhancing the coercive capacity of the police can entrench a wartime political order that makes peace more elusive; when police deploy the image of the state toward destabilizing ends they reinforce the institutions of everyday war, undermining the stability a monopoly on violence is intended to build.

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“…At the latter level, there is a pressing requirement to promote security sector governance. 25 The many long civil wars in the region have spurred the need for establishing links between security and governance, and ECOWAS has been instrumental especially in focusing a larger understanding of security centred on communities and people. Given that the problem of arms goes beyond borders and that the borders in this region are so porous, the role of ECOWAS in security building is essential.…”

Section: Main Elements and Legal Structure Of The Ecowas Conventionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arms restraint and regional international law making: The case of the Economic Community of West African States

Garcia¹

2009

African Security Review

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Democratizing security sector governance in West Africa: trends and challenges

Cited by 12 publications

References 4 publications

Establishing the Rule of Law in Weak and War-torn States: Evidence from a Field Experiment with the Liberian National Police

Establishing the Rule of Law in Weak and War-torn States: Evidence from a Field Experiment with the Liberian National Police

Policing Insecurity

Arms restraint and regional international law making: The case of the Economic Community of West African States

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