Last week, Libya’s House of Representatives (representing who, exactly, in Libya’s fractured polity?) elected a new president. Aguila Saleh Iissa, an independent lawmaker from the eastern town of al-Qobba, is the country’s sixth head of state since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
SSR Blog
Monthly Archive
August | 2014
Goodbye Libya, and welcome to the Islamic Emirate of Benghazi?
By: Simon Allison | Friday, August 15th, 2014The Lesser Evil: When Does it Make Sense to Intervene on Behalf of Incumbents?
By: Danny Hirschel-Burns | Thursday, August 14th, 2014A few weeks ago, Edward H. Carpenter came out with two compelling posts (here and here) in the Duck of Minerva. In his first article, he notes that the Islamic State’s (IS) advance in Syria and Iraq is only one example of recent victories by mobile, non-state Islamic fundamentalist groups organized as networks. In his 
SSR, Local Ownership, and Community Engagement
By: Eleanor Gordon | Thursday, August 14th, 2014Local ownership is widely considered to be one of the core principles of successful security sector reform (SSR) programmes. Nonetheless, a gap remains between policy and practice. Reasons for this gap include concerns regarding limited capacity and lack of expertise, time and cost constraints, the allure of quantifiable results and quick wins, and the need
Roadblocks to a Professional Security Sector in South Sudan
By: Margarita Yakovenko | Wednesday, August 13th, 2014South Sudan’s security sector faces a multitude of issues, including lack of funds, lack of equipment, low institutional capacity, as well as poor training and education. Thus far, the government has made certain improvements in policy formation and in the provision of resources, equipment, and training for its forces. However, they have yet to successfully address
Understanding Russia’s Proxy War in Eastern Ukraine
By: David Meadows | Tuesday, August 12th, 2014Since April 2014, Russia has been waging a proxy war in eastern Ukraine, through its increasingly escalating support of pro-Russian separatists in the ersatz Donetsk Peoples Republic and Luhansk Peoples Republic. Although Moscow has repeatedly denied supporting the pro-Russian separatists, it is clear that these rebel militias are not some rag-tag grassroots self-defence organizations, simply
News Roundup: 4 August – 10 August
By: SSR Resource Centre | Monday, August 11th, 2014Want to keep up to date on the SSR field? Once a week, the CSG’s Security Sector Reform Resource Centre project posts pertinent news articles, reports, projects, and event updates on SSR over the past week. Click here to sign-up and have the SSR Weekly News Roundup delivered straight to your inbox every week!
Backgrounder – Turmoil in Eastern Ukraine
By: Chelsea Winn | Friday, August 8th, 2014The downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 serves as a stark reminder that the crisis in Ukraine has not been resolved, despite the disappearance of the conflict from the mainstream media’s headlines in the weeks prior to the incident.
Note – DCAF Guidance Notes: Gender, Violence, and Security Sector Oversight
By: SSR Resource Centre | Friday, August 8th, 2014The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) has launched four new SSR-focused publications, which the Centre for Security Governance is very pleased to highlight.
NATO and Security Governance: A Return to Collective Defence?
By: Matthew Morgan | Thursday, August 7th, 2014The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) overall approach to security governance shifted twice during the course of the War on Terror. In response to new geopolitical pressures, NATO adopted a strategic stance that prioritized two different forms of out-of-area operations. A third shift, provoked by the crisis in Ukraine and an increasingly hostile Russia, is
Peacekeeping Works Better Than You May Think
By: Roland Paris | Wednesday, August 6th, 2014Does peacekeeping work? Janice Stein (University of Toronto) and I had a lively exchange on this subject on the CBC radio program “The House” last weekend. Have a listen.
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