After the Spring : Reforming Arab Armies

It is important to involve the security sector agents themselves in the process to overcome institutional opposition; appealing to professional ethics and identity is equally bound to be more successful than patronizing civilian attitudes. Ultimately, security sector reform against the wishes of the sector in question will always result in mitigated success, if not to say failure.For better or for worse, Arab security sectors remain one of the pillars of Arab states. Without security, no economic development is possible in either Libya or Egypt—and economic conditions led to the 2011 events in the first place. Western governments so far have refrained from extensive security sector reform in the Arab world, preferring security sector assistance or occasional training. What 2011 has shown, however, is that reforms are not only beneficial, but at this stage mandatory. Since civilian actors are themselves challenged by ongoing transitions, the main agents in this reform will have to be the institutions themselves. Understanding their concerns and needs will certainly foster their cooperation—and in any case such understanding is crucial to delivering the efficient and legally bound security sector that citizens and institutions alike are striving for.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

FLORENCE GAUB is a Senior Analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies where she heads the Middle East/Mediterranean program. She works on the Arab world with a focus on strategy and security. In addition to monitoring post-conflict developments in Iraq, Lebanon, and Libya, she works on Arab military forces, conflict structures, geo-strategic dimensions of the Arab region, and intercultural communication. She was previously assigned to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Defence College and the German parliament. Dr. Gaub has published several articles and two books on these topics, and has lectured widely with European governments, the NATO school at Oberammergau, Joint Forces Command Naples, and several think tanks and universities in the Middle East, Europe and the United States. Dr. Gaub holds degrees from Sciences Po Paris, Sorbonne, and Munich universities. She holds a Ph.D. from Humboldt University Berlin, where she wrote her thesis on the Lebanese army.