Making security sector reform organic: infrastructures for peace as an entry point?

Abstract

Security sector reform (SSR) has never been undebatable mostly because of the lack of local ownership. The burgeoning literature on ‘infrastructures for peace’ also stresses to ‘localise’ the way peacebuilding is exercised. But aviation, migration, economic and cyber issues at present ‘deterritorialise’ security – a fundamental pillar in peacebuilding. This article reviews SSR experiences in 10 post-war countries and explores the determinants of outcomes. It then examines the potentials in the ‘infrastructures for peace’ concept to complement or substitute such outcomes. It locates the determinants in three echelons: subject, peripheral and ideational context. Against the background of previous studies that concentrate on subject and ideational contexts, this article brings peripheral context into analysis that includes the power structures and international political contexts. Because security restructuring is not viable merely with informal infrastructures for peace, the article suggests such architectures need to rise above local boundaries to negotiate on security issues transnationally.