An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir February 2019 www.dfmagazine.ie 20 | ADVANCED TRAINING ON SECURITY SECTOR REFORM BY CPL LEE COYLE 'What is Security Sector Reform? An approach, not an activity' T he big question on most people's mind reading the title of this article is 'What exactly is Security Sector Reform?' Well firstly we need to look at what 'secu- rity' means in this case, if you're thinking that it's just the protection provided by the military, police force or state, you are only half right, this is the traditional state-centric idea of security. Today 'security' has shifted attention towards the people and their well-being, but also the livelihood and even property of those people, this has become widely referred to as human security. So, when we talk about the reform of the security sector, this includes many different state and non- state services and organisa- tions. This is the first time this course has been ran in UNTSI and had Interna- tional students attending from all over the globe, from China to Uganda, they also came from various agencies involved in SSR. Lecturers delivered the course from the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), in conjunction with the International Security Sector Advisory Team (ISSAT). Before the commencement of the course, each stu- dent was given some pre-course reading material to give students a case study that would be used throughout the course; this case study was on the subject of Mali and the recent events that have happened there. The course began with a look at the Characteristics of SSR: 1. Fundamental Approach - Local ownership 2. Core objectives – Effectiveness and Accountability 3. Essentials dimensions – Holistic, Political and Technical These characteristics would play a major role through- out the week and would be the building blocks that the students would use for all exercises. Each of these char- acteristics needed to be looked at when dealing with any part of SSR, they each have their own framework and ele- ments that need to be considered, with them also having a complex inter-relationship that affect each other and their performance. In a way, it is a balancing act with a lot of moving parts, finding a perfect solution is not an easy task with each country engaging in SSR being unique and bring- ing its own challenges to the table. This then leads into the new concept of security and the move from traditional security to human security and the key security actors that range from state to non-state and then from security and justice providers to governance,

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