02.05.2019 Vortragsreihe "Postcolonial Securities"|Paul Jackson (University of Birmingham): The problem with programming security | 6. Mai 2019, 16:00 Uhr

Paul Jackson (University of Birmingham): The problem with programming security

6. Mai 2019, 16–18 Uhr

Deutschhausstraße 3, Raum 109

Abstract:
Why have security sector reform interventions not been successful? Most international organisations, including the EU, UK and UN include an aspiration for inclusive security and justice in their efforts to intervene in post-conflict societies. This underlies much security sector reform (SSR) which is one of the main forms of intervention. However, we actually know very little about what we actually know about SSR. Based on a series of security and justice mapping exercises, this talk looks at what we actually know about SSR and how it fits in to the international architecture of peacebuilding intervention. It will argue that state-centric and technocratic approaches ignore much of the knowledge related to critical peacebuilding. Specifically, approaches to local ownership do not really include local owners or reflect the local environment of intervention. The talk will draw on some of this critical literature to point towards potential alternative approaches to SSR incorporating a better understanding of institutional politics, an emphasis on process rather than structures and analysis of hidden politics.

Paul Jackson is a political economist working predominantly on conflict and post-conflict reconstruction. A core area of interest is decentralisation and governance and it was his extensive experience in Sierra Leone immediately following the war that led him into the area of conflict analysis and security sector reform. He was Director of the GFN-SSR and is currently an advisor to the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre which engages him in wide ranging policy discussion with donor agencies engaged in these activities, including various European Governments, the EU, the UN and the World Bank as well as the UK Government.

Der Vortrag ist Teil einer Vortragsreihe über „Postcolonial Securities“, die Prof. Thorsten Bonacker (FB 03, Zentrum für Konfliktforschung) und Prof. Benedikt Stuchtey (FB 06) am Sonderforschungsbereich „Dynamiken der Sicherheit“ organisieren.