The purpose of this blog is to identify and analyze the dynamics of corruption at its systemic roots that has led to forms of state capture, low pay resulting in petty forms of corruption and issues with training within the Afghan judicial sector. The main empirical contribution of this paper is based on 70 semi-structured interviews 
SSR Blog
Category Archive
Category | Academic Spotlight
Theorizing corruption in the Afghan judicial sector
By: Danny Singh | Wednesday, January 13th, 2016Best of 2015 - Academic Spotlight blog series Top 5 articles
By: SSR Resource Centre | Monday, December 28th, 2015As part of our #YearInReview, this article highlights the best and most popular contributions to our new Academic Spotlight series published in 2015. It provides a good overview of key trends in research on security sector reform and security governance published this year in academic journals. Read and Share!
Security Sector Reform and the Paradoxical Tension between Local Ownership and Gender Equality
By: Eleanor Gordon | Thursday, December 10th, 2015Based on research published in Stability: International Journal of Security & Development, this blog contribution analyzes the tension that can exist between the principles of local ownership and gender equality that guide Security Sector Reform (SSR) programmes when gender discrimination and patriarchal values characterize the local environment.
The Afghan National Police: A study on corruption and clientelism
By: Danny Singh | Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015This blog identifies the underlying conditions of the Afghan state from the outset of the late 2001 Bonn political arrangement that has resulted in deep-rooted corrupt clientelistic networks within the Afghan government. This has trickled to the majority of the ministries including the Interior Ministry. Corruption is systemic and hard to combat despite police reform.
The domestic consequences of SSR: Real-world effects beyond external perspectives
By: Ursula C. Schroeder and Fairlie Chappuis | Tuesday, September 15th, 2015Local ownership has always been central to the theory of security sector reform (SSR) in post-conflict contexts – practically every policy concept in circulation among bilateral donors or multilateral institutions makes local ownership of the reform agenda a sine qua non for external support to SSR. But these calls for local ownership echo hollow against
A sub-national approach to statebuilding and security: the role of municipal institutions in Colombia’s DDR process
By: Francy Carranza Franco | Monday, September 7th, 2015The Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) process in Colombia was built nationally, but it was consolidated at the sub-national level: the Mayoral Offices of Bogota and Medellin developed programmes for the reintegration of ex-combatants that played a crucial role in both sustaining and contesting the national policy of reintegration The analysis of these policies contributes
Does research influence security sector reform policy? Evidence from a Sierra Leone case-study
By: Andrea Edoardo Varisco | Friday, August 21st, 2015A recent article from Conflict, Security & Development focuses on the influence of research on British-led security sector reform (SSR) in Sierra Leone, examining some general issues and themes that characterize the use of research in SSR policy in fragile, conflict-affected environments.
Overview & Blog Archive - Academic Spotlight series
By: Antoine Vandemoortele | Friday, August 14th, 2015The new Academic Spotlight blog series features recent research findings on security sector reform and security governance published in international relations academic journals. It provides a venue to promote discussion within the academic-policy nexus and develop opportunities to share and exchange on key SSR issues and themes. The blog posts published in this series summarize
Urban Gangs Make Comeback as Political Goons in Haiti
By: Moritz Schuberth | Monday, August 3rd, 2015It is commonly perceived that the motivation of Haiti’s urban gangs has changed from political to criminal – falsely so as my research has found. Rather, the function gangs fulfill for their sponsors is constantly shifting between political and criminal, as evidenced by the current re-emergence of political violence ahead of elections later this year.
Wartime experiences making gender security policy: A feminist perspective on hybridity
By: Laura McLeod | Tuesday, July 21st, 2015Power relations between the local and the international lie at the very core of gendered analyses about hybrid peace processes. We need to recognize the power of both the local and international, and to reflect upon the complexity of experience. Who experiences war? And what are the effects of these experiences?
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