ABSTRACT
The term security sector reform (SSR) was coined in a 1999 speech by Clare Short, the UK secretary of state for international development.1 It represented a significant departure from existing concepts and practices of donor security assistance. Discourse on the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to the security sector in development contexts had been ongoing since the early 1990s, but Short’s speech and a number of UK Department for International Development (DFID) policy documents that followed brought it to the fore and embedded the concept in international policy. Recognising that ‘development organizations have in the past tended to shy away from the issue of security sector reform’, Short argued for a new approach, one that recognised that ‘a security sector of appropriate size, properly tasked and managed, is a key’ for sustainable development.2 In essence she advocated a new security and development paradigm, one that acknowledged the intricate interconnections between the two spheres, and brought development thinking into the traditionally closed and insular security space. She was arguing for a developmentalisation of security assistance.3
