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61. New Trends in Policing in Western Europe: The Challenges for Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author:
Dominique Wisler
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
While there is a wide consensus today on the basic principles of democratic policing there is no blueprint of international standards of policing or internationally accepted organisational scheme to which a police in transition looking for guidance could simply seek to conform. Beyond many differences originating from history and political regimes, what exists instead - and can serve as guidance - are best policing practices as well as trends in organising a police service. In fact, as I would like to argue, Western police are experiencing dramatic changes since two decades, changes that affect the organization and the practices profoundly. Police services are indeed reorganized using the conceptual framework of “processes and services” rather than the traditional silos of exclusive competencies between various police branches. Starting from services such as local security, rapid intervention, crowd control and the fight against serious, complex and organized criminality, the architecture of police forces is being remodelled by reformers. Judiciary competencies have ceased to be the basis of a rigid division between the judiciary police and the uniformed police, but, as we will see below, the uniformed police are tasked today with new competencies as a result of a process-oriented reorganisation. This led to a 180 degree shift in the policing architecture: once conceived vertically in hermetic silos of competencies, services are conceptualized more horizontally, process-oriented, cross-cutting competencies.
Topic:
Security, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe, Bosnia, and Herzegovina

62. The Process from Authoritarianism to Democracy in Spain: the Impact of the 1981 Failed Cup

Author:
José A. Olmeda
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new (Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter 6).
Topic:
Security, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Spain

63. Increasing Military Influence in Danish Civil-Military Relations

Author:
Henning Sørensen
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
This chapter pursues developments of Danish civil-military relations to identify changes in the degree of military influence. Two case studies are put forward. The first case deals with long-term change processes in the field of civil-military relations. In this case study, four major areas are investigated: the personnel composition of the Danish defence, its expenditures per capita, its organisational structure, and military participation in defence commissions. Changes in all four areas are pursued over the last-half century revealing increased military influence in Danish civil-military relations. A striking indicator of this development is the case of top military disobedience in 2001, which constitutes the second case study entitled 'Military disobedience of the Danish defence commander'. The consequences of the major military influence for three actors: 'politicians', 'media', and the 'armed forces' are discussed and it is argued that neither of them gains from the increased military influence, not even the professional soldiers. The reported extreme of military behaviour contrasts many examples of military respectful democratic decision-making. Reasons for the military disobedience may be explained by the distinction 'to have' or 'to exercise' democratic control, where the former is the proper type of democratic control of the armed forces and not the latter as wrongfully perceived by the former Danish Joint Chief of Staff (JCS).
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, and Development
Political Geography:
Europe

64. Providing Security. The Division of Labour. Armed Forces, Gendarmerie, Police

Author:
Alain Faupin
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
This topic is quite uneasy as the security tasks of all three organizations, namely armed forces, police and gendarmerie, are either very different, or very intermingled. The only common point is the primacy of the civilian authority, a rule of good governance and of democracy scrupulously applied and overseen.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Government, and Governance
Political Geography:
Europe

65. Police and Gendarmerie Reform in Belgium: from Force to Service

Author:
Denis Bergmans
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
It is for me, as a representative of the Gendar merie, the Belgian federal police, a great honour to be invited as a speaker for this seminar.
Topic:
Security, Development, and Education
Political Geography:
Europe and Belgium

66. Convergence of European Security Systems

Author:
Willem van Eekelen
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The decision of the European Council to start negotiations in 2005 for the entry of Turkey into the European Union constituted an important landmark in a long-term process, ongoing since 1963. This decision concerned full membership and not some lesser special relationship and made clear that Turkey would not be treated differently from other candidates for EU membership. Both sides recognised that the negotiations will take considerable time during which attention will be given to a monitoring process.
Topic:
Security, NATO, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe and Turkey

67. The Catalysts, Directions and Focus on Turkey Agenda for Security Sector Reform in the 21st Century

Author:
Ümit Cizre
Publication Date:
11-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
This paper addresses three questions regarding Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Turkey: First, under what objectives of the SSR concept does the discussion of the Security Sector Reform in Turkey fall, or, put differently, what is the relevance of the post-Cold War SSR agenda-–coming as a response to Western reorientation of security priorities–for the reform of the guiding principles, structures, and operations of security institutions in Turkey? The second query concerns the nature of SSR in Turkey, problems contained therein, and its impact on the system, if not on the country's chances for accession to the EU, and on the civil-military equilibrium in the new millennium. The final question explores the lessons to be learned from the objectives and trajectories of Turkey's SSR agenda. These questions, and corresponding answers, will be organized in the following five sections.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Cold War, and Politics
Political Geography:
Turkey and Eastern Europe

68. Strengthening International Arms Control/Disarmament Regimes and the Democratic Oversight and Reform of the Security Sector

Author:
Philipp H. Fluri
Publication Date:
11-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The effort to universally promote and apply multilateral disarmament and arms control treaties requires public understanding of the contribution of such treaties to international security. All too often specialized knowledge of disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation treaties remains concentrated with the executive and a few specialized departments of the Ministries of Defense or Foreign Affairs: whilst parliamentarians and the public remain largely ignorant about them. However, without either comprehensively informed and committed parliamentary oversight and guidance, or scrutiny by an empowered civil society, arms control and disarmament treaties will neither be sufficiently understood nor successfully implemented.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Civil Society, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

69. Challenges of Security Sector Governance in Kuwait

Author:
Ghanim Al-Najjar
Publication Date:
08-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The security apparatus in Kuwait is divided into three main institutions, namely the Army, the Police, and the National Guard. The division of labour amongst the three institutions is clear. While the army is re sponsible for external defence duties (since offensive war is prohibited by the Constitution), the police are responsible for internal security, and the National Guard is responsible for providing emergency and supporting duties. According to the Constitution, the army is headed by the Amir (the Head of State) being the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, while in reality the army is headed by the Minister of De fence who is currently Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Alsabah, and operationally headed by the Chief-of-Staff Fahad Alamir. Although the military side of the army is run on a daily basis by the military staff, the Ministry of Defence that is basically civilian in its composition has a major impact on any work and decision-making that affects army affairs. The police on the other hand are completely administered through the Ministry of the Interior; the current Minister of the Interior is Sheikh Nawwaf Alahmad Alsabah. The currently Under-Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior is Nasser Alothman and he is assisted by seven Assistant Under-Secretary's for administering the daily operations of the police. Six out of the seven Under-Secretaries are police officers. Almost 90% of the top management of the Ministry of the Interior is made up of police officers, and this situation differs greatly from the state of affairs that is to be found in the Ministry of Defence. The National Guard is an independent institution of the Armed Forces, which reports directly to the Supreme Council of Defence, which is headed by a senior sheikh (currently Sheikh Salim Alali Alsabah and his deputy Sheikh Mishal Alahmad Alsabah).
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Defense Policy, and Governance
Political Geography:
Middle East and Kuwait

70. Security Sector Transformation in Afghanistan

Author:
Mark Sedra
Publication Date:
08-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The U.S.-led Coalition's swift victory over the Taliban regime in October 2001 created a security vacuum across Afghanistan that the international community was unprepared to fill. Winning the peace in Afghanistan has proven to be a much more complex, costly, and protracted endeavour than winning the war, an imposing burden that has severely tested the resolve of the international donor community. With only 11,000-13,000 Coalition troops mandated to eradicate the last remnants of al-Qaeda an the Taliban in the south and a limited NATO presence of 6,000 troops deployed in the capital to insulate the fledgling political process, the onus for maintaining security in the country fell on the Afghan government and its fledgling security forces. After 23 years of civil war the country's security sector was in a state of disarray, its infrastructure destroyed, resources limited, and facing a shortage of human capacity. To bolster Afghanistan's beleaguered security institutions and ensure they conform to international standards, the major donors engaged in the country launched a security sector reform (SSR) process. Security sector transformation rather than reform seems more appropriate to describe the task of creating efficient, effective, and democratically accountable security forces in Afghanistan, for the bulk of the country's formal security apparatus ceased to function over a decade ago. In spite of the massive challenges that face program, it has been portrayed as the primary means to redress Afghanistan's immediate security woes. What by its very nature is a gradual, long-term process has been thrust into the position as short-term panacea.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and NATO
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Middle East, and Taliban