ABSTRACT
Efforts to reform the governance of security forces after conflict have confronted the core political challenges of statebuilding, leading to mixed results and uncertain outcomes. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the largest and most intensive interventions ever conducted only partially achieved its objectives. In moving beyond training and equipping the security forces towards reforming their structure, composition and oversight structures, donors and international organizations sought to transform the security sector as a basis for broader peacebuilding and development outcomes. As in other contexts, however, external efforts faced opposition and resistance, leading to highly uneven results. While achieving a substantial restructuring of the Bosnian defence forces, external actors failed to achieve their objectives in restructuring the police forces. Such variation within a single country cannot be explained by the factors that are typically understood to affect the impact of external efforts, such as the amount of resources provided, the level of capacity, or even the nature of assistance.
