Securing Sierra Leone

Between 1991 and 2002, Sierra Leone was wracked by a devastating civil war and almost complete bureaucratic collapse. Since then, the United Kingdom’s contribution to post-war reconstruction has been widely held up as an example of successful stabilization and state-building – particularly of the country’s security and justice institutions.

Authored by Peter Albrecht (DIIS) and Paul Jackson (University of Birmingham), Securing Sierra Leone, 1997-2013 examines how the process of state-building through security sector reform developed in Sierra Leone, and the impact of this experience on international conceptualizations of such reform as well as on international interventions more broadly. The study is the most detailed of its kind, building on previous work by the two authors, including Security System Transformation in Sierra Leone, 1997-2007 (2009), Views From the Front Line: Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone, 1997-2007 (2010) and Reconstructing Security After Conflict: Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone (2011). It is based on a comprehensive analysis of UK engagement in Sierra Leone between 1997 and 2013, including a host of first-hand accounts from key local and international actors.

The monograph shows why the UK intervention in Sierra Leone has been a relative success. However, it also questions the sustainability of state-building efforts that are driven by concepts of the liberal state. In Sierra Leone, critical challenges remain, not least in the combination of a particular vision of what a state should look like and the unrealistic expectations of progress on the part of the international community.

The monograph is published by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and can be ordered directly from Taylor and Francis. If you have access to Taylor and Francis’ e-journals, the book can be downloaded here.

STORY FROM DIIS.