Prioritizing Security Sector Reform: A New U.S. Approach

Prioritizing Security Sector Reform argues that security sector reform should be at the core of a new U.S. policy to strengthen the security sector capacity of countries where U.S. interests are at stake. Today s fragile environments feature a host of postconflict and postauthoritarian states and transitioning and new democracies that have at least one critical thing in common: Their security sectors are dysfunctional. Why these states cannot fulfill their most basic function the protection of the population and their government varies widely, but the underlying reason is the same. The security sector does not function because security sector institutions and forces are absent, ineffective, predatory, or illegitimate. In place of large, boots-on-the-ground interventions relying on expensive train and equip programs with only fleeting impact, Washington needs a new approach for engaging in fragile environments and a policy for prioritizing where it engages and for what purpose. The volume offers case studies to exemplify the context in which a new U.S. approach might be warranted, discusses other countries experiences with security sector reform policies, and examines how the United States should design and implement a security sector reform policy.

Querine Hanlon is the founding president and executive director of Strategic Capacity Group. Previously she served as special advisor for the U.S. Institute of Peace and as dean of the College of International Security Affairs at National Defense University.

Richard H. Shultz, Jr., is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School, Tufts University and director of Fletcher s International Security Studies Program. Currently he is also a consultant to the U.S. Special Operations Command and a senior fellow with the command s Joint Special Operations University.