New Approaches Urgently Needed to Crisis in South Sudan
To date sanctions already imposed on a handful of South Sudanese officials by the USA, Canada, EU and UN have had little effect on the conflict.
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Category: Commentary
UN Peacekeeping with no Peace: Disorientation, Demoralization and Scarcity in Mali
The current model for international peacekeeping in Mali is unsustainable and unlikely to solve the many problems facing the country.
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African Organised Crime: Not Just a Problem of Fragile and Conflict-Affected States
How homegrown organized crime groups in Africa are diversifying, maturing and increasing in sophistication.
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Philippines Security Sector: Is the war on drugs actually making the country safer?
CSG Senior Fellow Alix Valenti continues her explanation of why Duterte’s war on drugs has proved to be particularly bloody in part two of a special feature on the Philippines.
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Philippines’ Security Sector and the War on Drugs
Although the Republic of the Philippines is not generally recognised as a violent or fragile state, since ex-Davao mayor Rodrigo Duterte was elected President on 30 June 2016, the country has been regularly making the headlines. CSG Senior Fellow Alix Valenti explains why Duterte’s war on drugs has proved to be particularly bloody.
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A New Leader in International Support to Security Sector Reform: Exploring the Experience and Potential Role of Japan
Few countries have undergone security sector reform more profoundly than Japan after World War II, yet Japan has not been a leading voice in this field, despite a foreign policy centered on human security and institution building. A new international SSR assistance platform would enable Japan to support enhanced governance, oversight, and professionalism of the security sectors of fragile states while further raising its profile in UN peacekeeping and the sustaining peace agenda.
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Crimes of the Powerful in Conflict-Affected Environments: False Positives, Transitional Justice and the Prospects for Peace in Colombia
This post examines the recent false positives scandal in Colombia, which involved the arbitrary execution of thousands of poor, marginalised civilians, by Army personnel. It is argued that peacebuilding efforts will be unsuccessful without addressing impunity, deficiencies in the security sector, and socio-economic inequalities which led to these crimes.
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Mainstreaming Gender Sensitive Police Reform
This article delves into the ever-evolving field of gender security sector reform, in order to uncover its shortcomings and subsequently provide novel to the discipline. It argues that practices within the field of gender sensitive police reform display radical alternatives to overcome SSR’s issues, specifically through its focus on ‘gender-mainstreaming’ as a transformative approach to reform.
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Ethiopia: Sliding further away from democracy
This article analyzes the impact on democracy and governance of the protests and the state of emergency in Ethiopia declared by the government. The author argues that, although messy, and perhaps disruptive to Ethiopia’s economic progress, what is needed is genuine democratic dialogue to solve this crisis.
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Canada in Africa: Integrating security sector reform into its peace and stabilization strategy
CSG Senior Fellow David Law discusses new initiatives and ongoing efforts by the Canadian government as part of its overall strategy of re-engagement with peace operations.
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Injustice and (In)Security: Public perceptions of Nigeria and Kenya’s security forces and their implications for the fight against violent extremism
Using evidence from Afrobarometer surveys, the authors analyze public perceptions of security in Nigeria and Kenya and the implications this has on countering violent extremism. They focus on issues of public trust in security forces, corruption and the success and failure of security-led approaches vs development-oriented approaches to violence and violent extremism.
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Police Reform in Iraq: Challenges and Lessons Learned (Part 1)
CSG’s Antoine Vandemoortele interviews Sr. Fellow Paul Biddle, Strategic Police Advisor to the UK Embassy in Baghdad, the Coalition Joint Task Force Operation “Inherent Resolve” and the Governor of Anbar in Iraq between February and May 2016. Part 1 discusses Biddle’s role as Strategic Police Advisor as well as the context and key challenges of police reform in Anbar province.
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