Waterloo, Canada — November 30 — The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) today announces the launch of its first eBook, The Future of Security Sector Reform, which is edited by CIGI Senior Fellow Mark Sedra. At a time when the United States, Canada and their coalition partners are re-evaluating their roles and exit strategies in Afghanistan and other broken states, this book provides a crucial understanding of the complexities of reforming and transforming the security and justice architecture of the state.
This forward-looking collection of papers from some of the world’s leading scholars and practitioners in this globally significant policy area stems from CIGI’s “e-conference” of the same name in May 2009. The book’s foreword is penned by Clare Short, the British politician and former Secretary of State for International Development who first coined the phrase “security sector reform” (SSR) in 1999 in an attempt to link the development and security agendas. In the years since, Ms. Short writes, “the invasion of Iraq and the declaration of the ‘war on terror’ (has) infected the debate on SSR with deep ulterior motives.”
In The Future of Security Sector Reform, Mark Sedra and his co-authors examine how far we’ve come since Ms. Short, with the support of organizations such as the OECD and the UN, helped establish SSR as an essential aspect of post-conflict state reconstruction. Mr. Sedra is joined in this analysis by eminent SSR scholars such as Prof. Paul Jackson from the University of Birmingham and by frontline experts such as Adedeji Ebo, Chief of the Security Sector Reform Unit of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations.
“CIGI assembled an extraordinary team of sector experts whose collective work is an impressive element-by-element analysis of the complexities of SSR. Beyond history and trends, we are offered insight into what works, what doesn’t, and what’s needed,” comments D.C. (David) Beer, former Director General of International Policing for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and currently an International Policing Advisor for the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre. Robert M. Perito, Senior Program Officer at the United States Institute for Peace, calls the book “a highly educational must-read for anyone who wants to understand this critical issue.”
Starting today, The Future of Security Sector Reform will be available for download in eBook format from Kobo (www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-Future-Of-Security-Sector/book-cp_NwYNq1UKwwT2F_NEsWw/page1.html) for CAD$9.99. It will also soon be available from other eBook retailers, including Amazon.com and Apple’s iBookstore. The publication is also available as a free PDF from CIGI’s website: www.cigionline.org/publications/2010/11/future-security-sector-reform.
ABOUT THE EDITOR: Mark Sedra is a Senior Fellow at CIGI and teaches in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo. His current research focuses on the topic of post-conflict state building with an emphasis on security issues. He is also the co-editor of Afghanistan: Transition Under Threat (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008) and the co-author of Afghanistan, Arms and Conflict: Armed Groups, Disarmament and Security in a Post-War Society (Routledge, 2008).
For more information on The Future of Security Sector Reform and to view a video of Mark Sedra discussing the book, visit CIGI’s SSR Resource Centre www.ssrresourcecentre.org/ebook
MEDIA CONTACT:
Declan Kelly, Communications Specialist, CIGI
Tel: 519.885.2444, ext. 356, Email: [email protected]
The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) is an independent, nonpartisan think tank on international governance. Led by experienced practitioners and distinguished academics, CIGI supports research, forms networks, advances policy debate and generates ideas for multilateral governance improvements. Conducting an active agenda of research, events and publications, CIGI’s interdisciplinary work includes collaboration with policy, business and academic communities around the world. CIGI was founded in 2001 by Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of RIM (Research In Motion), and collaborates with and gratefully acknowledges support from a number of strategic partners, in particular the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario. For more information, please visit www.cigionline.org.