There are two rather over-used, if entirely accurate, rules in the UK Armed Forces. The first is von Moltke, the Elder’s maxim that “no plan ever survives contact with the enemy” (meaning be ready to adapt — and quickly — for every eventuality). The second is Dwight D Eisenhower’s observation that “plans are useless, but 
SSR Blog
Monthly Archive
January | 2013
Counterinsurgency and the Iron Clad Law of Second Order Consequences
By: Andrew Mackay | Thursday, January 31st, 2013The challenge of SSR in South Sudan: Attitude as well as implementation
By: Aly Verjee | Wednesday, January 30th, 2013What started this week as a trivial matter — a mid-ranking soldier’s visit to the barber in Pibor, eastern Jonglei state, South Sudan — illustrates the challenge of security sector reform and transformation in the world’s newest country. An on-again, off-again Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) officer, James Duag Kuburin, needed his hair cut, and
News Roundup: 18 Jan - 25 Jan 2013
By: Sean Jellow | Friday, January 25th, 2013Once a week, the SSR Resource Centre will post pertinent news articles, reports, projects and updates on SSR related events over the past week. Be sure to come back every Friday to see what has been happening in the field in this SSR Weekly round-up! _ News Articles UN Peacekeeping Official Urges Sustained Focus on
Afghanistan’s Electoral System and Security Sector Reform
By: Joe Derdzinski | Friday, January 18th, 2013Recently, I had the opportunity to return to Afghanistan to present research findings that intended to assist Afghans as they consider how changes to their current electoral system might affect governance. The research question I was tasked to explore was quite intriguing, and one where the literature was essentially silent: How does an electoral system
World Bank Hosts Roundtable Addressing Security Sector Expenditure Challenges
By: Sean Jellow | Thursday, January 17th, 2013Security sector reform (SSR) suffers from a number of challenges in post-conflict states, but expenditure management and financial review of SSR processes pose particular challenges that are not present in other sectors, such as health and education. It is these challenges, and the gaps in knowledge and expenditure management, that the World Bank and DCAF
Toward Second Generation SSR: Three Must-Reads
By: Mark Sedra | Monday, January 14th, 2013There is no shortage of written materials on the concept of security sector reform (SSR), whether academic articles, policy reports or collections of essays. Much of this work examines how SSR has been implemented in specific reform settings, countries like Timor-Leste, Haiti, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. A majority of the voluminous country case studies that
Revisiting the Western Balkans
By: David Law | Thursday, January 10th, 2013I recently returned to the Western Balkans after an absence of over a year to attend a conference that brought together Parliamentary Defence and Security Committees from several countries of the region, as well as Turkey. The venue was Rakitje, the headquarters of RACVIAC , an organisation originally set up to supervise disarmament arrangements among
Mali: The importance of SSR in Bamako
By: Matthew Redding | Wednesday, January 9th, 2013Before March 2012, not many would have expected Mali to be the next potential battleground in the war on terror. A relatively stable democracy since 1991, Mali’s free and fairly elected government, led by Amadou Toumani Touré (ATT), was overthrown in a military coup spearheaded by Captain Amadou Sanogo who cited dissatisfaction with the handling
Guatemala: President Pérez Molina’s Successes and Failures
By: Ambassador Donald Planty | Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013President Pérez Molina’s first year in office has produced mixed results. The President’s administration has enjoyed some modest successes on the economic and social front but has suffered a series of disappointments and setbacks to Guatemala’s most important challenge – improving governance and security.
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