The ASSN, its members and affiliates are involved in extensive research and publication on the Security Sector Governance in Africa and elsewhere.
Hybrid Security Governance in Africa: Implications for State-building
The African Security Sector Network (ASSN) signed a Memorandum of Grant Conditions in 2014 with the International Development and Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) for the execution of a three-year research project. The project is titled âHybrid Security Governance in Africa: Implications for State-buildingâ and covers six African countries: Cote dâIvoire, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somaliland and South Africa.
The grant application submitted by the ASSN to IDRC in support of the project was premised on the realization that Security Sector Reform (SSR) processes are more often than not focused on structural and formal institutional arrangements of the state, specifically on tangible policy goals such as better design and management of security budgets, training and professionalization of security institutions, reforms of the police and courts , improving mechanisms of parliamentary accountability, the provision of alternative livelihoods for ex-combatants, and so on. They have scarcely begun to touch upon the deep politics of reform or to draw in any systematic way upon the critical literatures on the state, hybrid political orders [HPOs] and security. References to the âinformalâ security and justice sector have become a standard fixture in the global SSR and âstate-buildingâ toolkit, but this has remained largely at the level of rhetoric, with little real understanding of how this sector actually functions, of the complex character of the intersections between formal and informal institutions, or the implications (importantly) for reform efforts that aim to build Weberian ideal-type institutions. Yet, in reality, the Security Sector in Africa is an intricate fusion of both formal and customary/traditional actors and institutions.
The term âhybridityâ is employed in this context to denote the complex amalgam of statutory and non-statutory actors and institutions typically at play in the African security sector, though in this project the main thrust of the concept is to illuminate the character and functioning of security systems in countries emerging from conflict, where customary, clan and non-formal institutions tend to be widely implicated in delivery of security, and where there is a particular need to understand the nature of these intersections of formality and informality if state â and peacebuilding initiatives are to achieve any traction and sustainability. The principal objective of the research is to rethink prevailing conceptions of âsecurity governanceâ in Africa, which are by and large built around the notion of a âstateâ characterized by (and functioning in line with) legal-rational norms and institutions. It is this conception which in turn informs current SSR exercises on the continent.
The project argues that such notions of âgovernanceâ are deceptively simple as well as misleading in the African context, where âas is already well recognized in the sociological literatureâmany political and social transactions occur in contexts defined as much by informal as by formal norms and systems, and where a wide array of informal institutions operate alongside or within nominally formal political structures. The project hopes to offerâbased on grounded researchâ a radically different (but also much more comprehensive and realistic) perspective on African security governance. Its central thesis is that, in the African context, security sectors are often constituted and driven by multilevel structures and networks that span the conventional state / non-state divide; states and informal networks should thus be seen not as functionally distinct or mutually exclusive, but rather as embedded in dynamic and shifting relations of cooperation and competition, depending on the context. The research will explore and identify those informal networks, actors and processes which, alongside legally established structures, influence decision-making as well as policy implementation in the security sector. Specifically, the project is set to achieve five distinct and yet interrelated objectives:
â The first is to identify and analyse the networks and processes that span the divide between âformalityâ and âinformalityâ, and, as a result, provide a better and more realistic understanding of decision-making processes and power distribution in the African security sector.
â The second is to clarify the role of non-state / non-formal / customary security institutions (community security organs, militias, vigilante groups, etc), and the interactions and interface between these and the formal security institutions of the state. Hybrid security orders are characterized by the existence of multiple non-state providers of security, as the state shar
Hybrid Security Governance in Africa: Implications for State-building
The African Security Sector Network (ASSN) signed a Memorandum of Grant Conditions in 2014 with the International Development and Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) for the execution of a three-year research project. The project is titled âHybrid Security Governance in Africa: Implications for State-buildingâ and covers six African countries: Cote dâIvoire, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somaliland and South Africa.
The grant application submitted by the ASSN to IDRC in support of the project was premised on the realization that Security Sector Reform (SSR) processes are more often than not focused on structural and formal institutional arrangements of the state, specifically on tangible policy goals such as better design and management of security budgets, training and professionalization of security institutions, reforms of the police and courts , improving mechanisms of parliamentary accountability, the provision of alternative livelihoods for ex-combatants, and so on. They have scarcely begun to touch upon the deep politics of reform or to draw in any systematic way upon the critical literatures on the state, hybrid political orders [HPOs] and security. References to the âinformalâ security and justice sector have become a standard fixture in the global SSR and âstate-buildingâ toolkit, but this has remained largely at the level of rhetoric, with little real understanding of how this sector actually functions, of the complex character of the intersections between formal and informal institutions, or the implications (importantly) for reform efforts that aim to build Weberian ideal-type institutions. Yet, in reality, the Security Sector in Africa is an intricate fusion of both formal and customary/traditional actors and institutions.
The term âhybridityâ is employed in this context to denote the complex amalgam of statutory and non-statutory actors and institutions typically at play in the African security sector, though in this project the main thrust of the concept is to illuminate the character and functioning of security systems in countries emerging from conflict, where customary, clan and non-formal institutions tend to be widely implicated in delivery of security, and where there is a particular need to understand the nature of these intersections of formality and informality if state â and peacebuilding initiatives are to achieve any traction and sustainability. The principal objective of the research is to rethink prevailing conceptions of âsecurity governanceâ in Africa, which are by and large built around the notion of a âstateâ characterized by (and functioning in line with) legal-rational norms and institutions. It is this conception which in turn informs current SSR exercises on the continent.
The project argues that such notions of âgovernanceâ are deceptively simple as well as misleading in the African context, where âas is already well recognized in the sociological literatureâmany political and social transactions occur in contexts defined as much by informal as by formal norms and systems, and where a wide array of informal institutions operate alongside or within nominally formal political structures. The project hopes to offerâbased on grounded researchâ a radically different (but also much more comprehensive and realistic) perspective on African security governance. Its central thesis is that, in the African context, security sectors are often constituted and driven by multilevel structures and networks that span the conventional state / non-state divide; states and informal networks should thus be seen not as functionally distinct or mutually exclusive, but rather as embedded in dynamic and shifting relations of cooperation and competition, depending on the context. The research will explore and identify those informal networks, actors and processes which, alongside legally established structures, influence decision-making as well as policy implementation in the security sector. Specifically, the project is set to achieve five distinct and yet interrelated objectives:
â The first is to identify and analyse the networks and processes that span the divide between âformalityâ and âinformalityâ, and, as a result, provide a better and more realistic understanding of decision-making processes and power distribution in the African security sector.
â The second is to clarify the role of non-state / non-formal / customary security institutions (community security organs, militias, vigilante groups, etc), and the interactions and interface between these and the formal security institutions of the state. Hybrid security orders are characterized by the existence of multiple non-state providers of security, as the state shar