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111. Security Sector Reform Monitor: Timor-Leste

Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The third edition of the Security Sector Reform (SSR) Monitor: Timor-Leste acknowledged that the national justice system continues to face major obstacles, even though recent strategic planning and initial efforts to improve access to justice have showed promising signs for future justice system development (see The Centre for International Governance Innovation [CIGI], 2011). Two increasingly serious challenges to the justice system — and also the broader security sector — are the political intervention in the justice system and the lack of accountability for both past crimes and more recent crimes associated with the 2006 internal crisis.
Topic:
Security, Crime, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
Southeast Asia

112. Ambiguous Definitions in the Cyber Domain: Costs, Risks and the Way Forward

Author:
Federica Di Camillo and Valérie Miranda
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The modern-day importance of the cyber/Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector rests upon various considerations: it is at the basis of most of the critical infrastructures of modern societies, and can be both the direct object of attacks or incidents on Critical Information Infrastructures (CIIs) and the means of striking indirectly at the critical infrastructures whose own operations are based on it (i.e., transport networks, energy and water distribution networks, nuclear plants and banking and financial systems). This paper aims at showing that the existence of problems of definitions, and above all of their harmonisation, brings inefficiencies to various aspects of the management of the cyber sector, in particular normative production, countermeasures and law enforcement. As a way forward, it suggests some proposals for improvement at the European, transatlantic and international levels.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Communications, Infrastructure, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
Europe

113. Beyond Viktor Bout: Why the United States needs an Arms Trade Treaty

Author:
Scott Stedjan and Colby Goodman
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
With the trial of Viktor Bout nearly underway and the UN negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) starting in the summer of 2012, this briefing paper seeks to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of the challenges the US government faces in tackling unscrupulous arms brokers abroad and to show how the adoption of a strong and comprehensive ATT could help the United States and other governments in such efforts.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Crime, International Cooperation, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
United States and United Nations

114. Keeping Haiti Safe: Justice Reform

Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Haiti's justice system remains dysfunctional and continues to pose significant obstacles to its democratic process, security, reconstruction and development. While some steps have begun with regard to the police, institutional reform in the sector has lagged, allowing further impunity and persistent criminal threats to citizen safety. Despite five years of pledges, the majority of Haitians still have limited access to justice, and mistrust of the formal judicial system is widespread. President Michel Martelly and parliament must work in a non-partisan manner to at last produce reform, including by modernising the 174 year- old criminal code and procedures and setting standards for judges, giving the judiciary adequate resources and creating efficient mechanisms that guarantee proper access to justice.
Topic:
Security, Economics, Politics, Poverty, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
Caribbean

115. The Iraq Federal Police

Author:
Robert M. Perito
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
In 2004, the U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi security forces faced a growing challenge from insurgents and militia groups as the country drifted toward civil war. In street battles with heavily armed insurgent and militia groups, Iraq's fledgling police units mutinied under fire and resigned en masse, pointing out shortfalls in the U.S. police training program. In response, the U.S. government transferred leadership of the U.S. police assistance program from the State Department to the Defense Department, which created heavy police tactical units capable of dealing with armed groups. At the same time, the Iraqi interior ministry independently organized police commando units composed of former Iraqi soldiers that successfully fought alongside U.S. military forces. In 2005, the installation of a new Iraqi government and the escalation of sectarian violence brought a change in the composition of the Iraqi police commando units. The new interior minister, a senior Shiite party official, enabled members of Shiite militia groups to take over the police commando units and engage in the kidnap, torture, and murder of Sunnis. To control police death squads, the U.S. military combined all of Iraq's heavy police and police commando units into a new entity, the Iraq National Police (INP). In October 2006, the U.S. military began a program to retrain police commando units that were engaged in sectarian violence. Over the following year, Iraq's new interior minister, Jawad al-Bolani, undertook a program to reform the INP, appointing a new commanding general, purging the officer corps, and inviting a training team from the Italian Carabinieri to provide advanced instruction for INP units. In 2007, INP units successfully partnered with U.S. combat brigade teams that were deployed to Baghdad as part of President Bush's surge of U.S. military force into Iraq. Over the next two years, the valor of Iraqi constabulary units and their acceptance in both Sunni and Shiite areas brought a new name, the Iraq Federal Police (IFP), and the deployment of an IFP unit to every province in the country. Lessons learned in the development of an indigenous police constabulary in Iraq should be applied to current and future stability operation.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Law Enforcement, and Sectarian violence
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Middle East, and Arabia

116. Import controls and an arms trade treaty

Author:
Mark Bromley and Paul Holtom
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Abstract:
The drafting of an arms trade treaty (ATT) represents a unique opportunity to define common state responsibilities for exercising control over the different stages of the arms transfer process and, as a result, prevent illicit and destabilizing arms transfers. Import controls represent a vital tool for helping to prevent cases of illicit diversion. They can also enable importer countries to play their part in preventing arms from being used to fuel conflicts or facilitate human rights abuses.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Crime, International Law, Treaties and Agreements, and Law Enforcement

117. National reports on arms exports

Author:
Mark Bromley and Henning Weber
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Abstract:
Since the early 1990s an increasing number of governments have chosen to publish national reports on their arms exports (see figure 1 and table 1). The initial push to publish national reports on arms exports came from various national parliaments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) demanding greater oversight of government implementation of arms export policies. Such demands gained particular traction following a spate of arms exportrelated scandals in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, International Law, and Law Enforcement

118. Security Sector Reform and the Dilemmas of Liberal Peacebuilding

Author:
Louise Riis Andersen
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
In recent years, Security Sector Reform (SSR) has emerged as a key component of international post-conflict reconstruction efforts. At the same time, however, it is becoming increasingly clear that the holistic approach to SSR that is outlined in policy papers is very difficult to translate into effective interventions in fragile states. This paper identifies two competing approaches for a 'contextualized' SSR-agenda: A monopoly model that focuses on restoring the state's monopoly on the means of violence and a hybrid model that seeks to strengthen local community-based security and justice solutions. The paper argues that as a strategy for intervention, the choice is not simply between a top-down 'imposition' of a universal state model and a bottom-up approach of 'working with what is there'. It is also a choice between direct and indirect forms of rule. This makes the dilemma real for liberal-minded practitioners and observers who for good reasons remain reluctant towards the colonial practice of ruling through middle-men. The paper does not offer a solution to the dilemma. When two imperatives pull in opposite directions, 'answers' are bound to be ad hoc: Specific and contextual, rather than principled and generic. The paper does, however, suggest that part of the way forward may be to move towards a more 'entry-oriented' mode of operation that recognizes that the role of external actors is to help establish a space for security and development solutions, rather than to fill that space.
Topic:
Security, Democratization, Peace Studies, Governance, and Law Enforcement

119. Peace and Development Efforts in Afghanistan: A Lost Decade

Author:
Patryk Kugiel
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Polish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
When international intervention put an end to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001 thousands of Afghans went out to the streets to celebrate a new beginning. After 20 years of bloody civil wars in the country, many had hoped that a new era of stability and prosperity was about to begin. The devastating terrorist attacks in the U.S., which brought the international coalition to Afghanistan, was seen as a guarantee that the West would not abandon the country before it was put back in order. Afghanistan could have been a model of post-conflict reconstruction.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, NATO, War, Law Enforcement, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and United States

120. Policing the People, Building the State: Authoritarian Transformation in the West Bank and Gaza

Author:
Yezid Sayigh
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
As rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza have sought to strengthen their respective Palestinian Authority Security Force (PASF) sectors in recent years, they have adopted very different approaches. The Fayyad government in the West Bank largely relies on financial and training support from the West, while the Haniah government of Hamas in Gaza, lacking significant outside help, has been forced to streamline its operations.
Topic:
Post Colonialism, Foreign Aid, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
Middle East, Arabia, and Gaza