For the first three years, the focus of the research group is set on the ways in which globalised norms of security sector governance, as they are circulated via the UN, NATO, EU or OSCE codes of conduct, are received in different contexts: Six country cases have be selected where related initiatives can be observed to promote the ethical norms inherent to Security Sector Reform (SSR).

 

SSR has come to divert from traditional, state-centred notions of institutional reforms, and has instead been placed increasingly in the frame of a multi-sectoral ‘human security’ concept with the aims of improving the delivery of security and justice, establish effective and accountable forms of governance, and thereby contribute to development in a wide sense. It is widely acknowledged that local ownership is essential in order to reach any of these goals. However, it is less clear how ‘the local’ could be conceptualised in practice and who exactly should be addressed, since the perceptions, interests, needs, and capabilities differ between the various stakeholders involved.

 

The aim of the project therefore is to study SSR related interactions in different settings from bottom-up. Qualitative ethnographic studies will be compiled for a systematic comparison of the following six cases: Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Nigeria, Thailand, and Turkey. Research questions to be followed are inter alia: Who are driving forces/local actors in the particular case? What conceptualizations of security dominate their field of discourses? Which conditions are to be met if ‘local ownership’ shall be attained for the envisaged reform processes? 

 

The project is made possible with a grant from the annual competitive distribution of research funds within the Leibniz Association.

 

Partners

Germany	Philip Lorenz Institute of Political Science, University of Heidelberg
Thailand	Paul W. Chambers Southeast Asian Institute for Global Studies, Payap University