ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the extent to which security sector reform (SSR) support to African militaries has produced any peace dividends. It looks at the concepts of both a peace dividend and SSR and examines an acceptable framework for evaluating the peace-related impact of SSR programmes. The chapter presents this framework to Ethiopia’s post-1998 defence reform experience. It suggests that the country’s ‘homegrown’ approach to strategic SSR provided significant momentum, supporting tangible gains in the peace dividend. The idea of a peace dividend as ‘a sum of public money which becomes available for other purposes when spending on defence is reduced’, was developed against the backdrop of the Cold War. In building on the idea of implied linkages between peacebuilding initiatives and the realisation of peace dividends, one could also draw linkages between peacebuilding and SSR. The role which the military plays in support of economic development has also placed question marks over possible links between the security forces and corruption.
