Securing Sierra Leone 1997-2013

This Whitehall Paper converted into a book on security sector reform in Sierra Leone offers unique empirical insight into the politics of international interventions in a changing global security landscape. Based on extensive analysis of the British contribution to processes of stabilization and state building through security sector reform in Sierra Leone, and building on earlier publications by the authors, the study provides important knowledge on how international interventions are experienced and negotiated by key strategic actors. The study, however, would have benefitted from a more critical look at how, and against what criteria, ‘success’ is measured. And, considering the authors' deep insights, steps could have been taken towards developing a new theoretical framework contributing to existing scholarly analysis of post-conflict reconstruction in Sierra Leone. Structured into six chapters, the Whitehall Paper traces the development of security sector reform in Sierra Leone from 1997, when British security sector interventions were initiated in a context of civil war, through a post-war period, and until 2013 when Sierra Leone was considered relatively stable. This period marked a unique phase of political transitions in the history of Sierra Leone, but also in the history of international security interventions. The authors explore the interplay between developments in Sierra Leone and changes in international approaches to security sector reform from a period when foreign-policy instruments of development, politics and defence were employed simultaneously and through the period of increased militarization of international interventions that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The core of the analysis deals with security sector reform after the 2007 elections in Sierra Leone when President Koroma of the All People's Congress was elected. This shift in political governance, the authors argue, resulted in a fundamental shift in how Sierra Leonean officials responded to British interventions – an increasing ‘cynicism’ about the agenda of external partners (p. 58) – and in lacking trust in institutions established by the previous government of the Sierra Leone People's Party. Moreover, the shift gave rise to ‘a growing politicization of domestic security’ (p. 97), exemplified for instance by the President's enrolment of his personal close protection team of notorious ex-combatants into the Operational Support Division of the Sierra Leone police. Despite this politicization, progress was made, most notably in relation to the Sierra Leone national army (RSLAF) that increasingly became engaged in international peacekeeping missions from 2010 and onwards. The portrayal of RSLAF contributions to missions in Darfur and subsequently Somalia is especially important, as it illuminates the complexities of interventions in a global security landscape, and the ways in which local actors negotiate dilemmas emerging from these interventions. The authors compellingly demonstrate how personal ‘turf wars’ (p. 11), rather than procedures, often came to shape the politics of decision-making. They critically question the extent to which Sierra Leonean actors have gained ownership of reforms, especially as British interventions were structured in accordance with the British model, thus mirroring a British liberal-democratic state, rather than local forms of political organization. In spite of this critique, the authors conclude that British security sector interventions in Sierra Leone have been relatively successful.

Context (archaeology) · Development economics · Diplomacy · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · International relations · Militarization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Psychological intervention · Security Sector Reform · Security studies · Sierra leone · Sociology · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance · Public Administration

• Introduction

  Paul Jackson•Journal of Intervention and…•2018

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