ABSTRACT

A survey of the case studies contained in this volume confirms the more general impression that UN-led DDR interventions have a record predominantly of failure, at least if judged by their own, self-imposed standards. It would indeed be difficult to identify a single case of a UN-led DDR effort that could be considered an unqualified success. Mozambique, for example, stands as one of the most successful DDR experiences in the history of the UN only if we judge it from the perspective of its political achievements. In mere DDR terms it was a failure, as disarmament was barely implemented and reintegration was mostly very doubtful. To be fair, it has to be taken into account that UN-led DDR interventions tend to take place in contexts where most states are not capable of implementing DDR themselves, or where problems of trust between the parties in conflict make a hoststate-led DDR difficult to adopt. This bias towards ‘basket cases’ undoubtedly goes a long way towards explaining the high failure rate. Nonetheless, this is no justification for not examining alternatives to a template that has been showing obvious limitations.