Roundtable: Dilemmas of Security Sector Reform Processes

 

The Federal Foreign Office and the Research and Knowledge Transfer Office Security Sector Reform (SSR Hub) of IFSH hosted the "Roundtable on Security Sector Reform" on 18 November. During this online event employees of German ministries and representatives of various (international) organisations as well as academics from Germany and around the world had the opportunity for mutual exchange.

Central topic was the manifold dilemmas that actors in security sector reforms are often confronted with. Security forces can, for example, abuse their power by using disproportionate force against civilians and preventing subsequent investigative work.

The event took place in the context of the German inter-ministerial strategy to support security sector reform (SSR), published in 2019. There, the German government states it “strives for stronger links with national and international SSR actors, and correspondingly seeks to enhance its consultation mechanisms [, notably with…] scholars, civil society, SSR practitioners and political decision-makers […].”