ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the early cases of an externally-led Security Sector Reform (SSR) intervention, namely the UK assistance programme in conflict-affected Sierra Leone. It examines the British-led policy process and the role played by research in designing and implementing such allegedly successful policy decisions. It focuses on the post-conflict years, analysing whether and how improved stability on the ground, an increased availability of academic and policy-oriented research and a structured institutionalised SSR policy agenda, contributed to the better use of such research in British-led SSR programmes in Sierra Leone. The analysis adopted a backward tracking methodological approach whereby British advisers and practitioners who worked on SSR in Sierra Leone were consulted in order to identify the pieces of research and authors that have influenced their activities on the ground. The police element of SSR was indeed split, with Justice Sector Development Programme (JSDP) overseeing broader justice aspects of police reform, while SILSEP absorbed the security aspects of police reform.
