Bryn Hughes

Taming the tigers? Reforming the security sector in Southeast Asia

Abstract Despite global trends towards military reform characterized by processes of professionalization and democratization, militaries in Southeast Asia have continued to play prominent roles in domestic politics since 11 September. This suggests that wider patterns of global military reform have not had as great an impact on the control, capacity and cooperative functions of armed forces in Southeast Asia as they may have elsewhere. In order to explore why the security sector reform agenda has had so little impact in the region, we investigate recent patterns of civil–military relations in Southeast Asia by focusing on the experiences of four of the regions militaries: Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. We argue that the security sector reform agenda is informed by a predominantly North American approach to civil–military relations based on a number of core assumptions that do not reflect Southeast Asian experiences. Hence, we ask whether the reform agenda itself could be modified to better suit the Southeast Asian context. We suggest that although the regional military sector has not reformed along a ‘Western’ path it is nonetheless possible to see other types of, and potential for, reform.

Securitizing Iraq: The Bush Administration's Social Construction of Security

In September 2002 Iraq became a grave danger. As such, there was an urgent need to topple Saddam Husseins regime, according to the Bush administration. On closer examination, however, there was little underpinning this sudden shift in the Bush administrations security claims. How then could an eventual war come about from a lack of objective threats? The Copenhagen Schools notion of ‘securitization’ seems ideally suited to help explain this situation, since it posits that security is about the perception of threat which flows from claims that something poses a grave danger, rather than the discovery of so-called objective threats. The purpose of this article therefore is to test the explanatory value of this conceptual framework. The approach taken is to view the lead up to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq through securitizations lens by juxtaposing the Bush administrations public pronouncements and private statements with broader evidence related to its security claims at the time. An additional, and necessary, part of the analysis is to explore the political uses of claiming that something is a ‘security’ issue. While suggesting how a heightened appreciation of audience socialization can help explain why identical security claims resonate with some groups but not others, the investigation reveals that securitization is indeed a useful tool to understand what occurred.

Peace Operations and the Political: A Pacific Reminder of What Really Matters

The overwhelming focus of peace support operations to-date has been on providing ‘technical’ solutions, the aim being to refurbish broken countries through constitutions and institutions in the mould of the ‘liberal peace’. The ‘political’, referring specifically to the socio-cultural value systems by which humans live together, is either kept out of the spotlight or discussed in terms of how to overcome ‘pernicious’ indigenous practices. This article contributes to the growing chorus of critique which presses for political considerations to be elevated to the fore. Its original contributions come principally in two forms: first, by exploring how a ‘complex social systems’ lens can supplant the inadequate conventional, reductionist view of mission environments; and second, by employing recent fieldwork in the Pacific islands to illustrate how a failure to heed such insights means that peace support operations risk failure.

Revisiting the liberal logic of intrastate security: The mitigation of political violence for all?

The dominant liberal democratic discourse maintains that its ideals and institutions mitigate recourse to political violence. “The ballot replaces the bullet” is the largely unchallenged conventional wisdom that reflects a complex set of assertions and assumptions. This article critically examines the key contentions and conceptual building blocks of this discourse, with a focus on the Democratic Peace Thesis. The upshot is that liberal democracys capacity to mitigate political violence may be significantly limited to that which is generally assumed.

Thawing Ceteris Paribus: The Move to a Complex Systems Lens

Peacebuilding endeavours have long been sabotaged by flawed assumptions that see the world as if problems can be identified and solved in relative isolation. Specifically, mainstream peacebuilding unwittingly relies on the notion of ceteris paribus, which enables a focus on certain aspects without a concern for everything else—which remains constant, frozen. But societies are not made of independent parts, rather a constantly changing web of relationships. We therefore need analytical tools that are compatible with the fluid nature of peacebuilding environments; we need to ‘thaw’ ceteris paribus, replacing it with a Complexity lens. After contrasting the mainstream and Complexity lenses, the chapter suggests ways to adapt popular evaluation tools and concludes with ideas about how to mainstream Complexity.

Chapter Ten Hybridity and Police Capacity Development in the Solomon Islands

Forging New Conventional Wisdom Beyond International Policing: Learning from Complex, Political Realities provides an innovative perspective in the field by conceptualizing international policing as part of a much broader system of peace and capacity development initiatives. Authors Bryn Hughes, Charles T. Hunt, and Jodie Curth-Bibb provide a thorough analysis of the current problems in the field, and subsequently offer a convincing argument for a new, post-Weberian approach.

Chapter Eleven The UN in Liberia: Articulating the Unarticulated Consensus for Change

Forging New Conventional Wisdom Beyond International Policing: Learning from Complex, Political Realities provides an innovative perspective in the field by conceptualizing international policing as part of a much broader system of peace and capacity development initiatives. Authors Bryn Hughes, Charles T. Hunt, and Jodie Curth-Bibb provide a thorough analysis of the current problems in the field, and subsequently offer a convincing argument for a new, post-Weberian approach.

Chapter Four The Rule of Law in Peace and Capacity Building Operations: Appreciating More than the State

Forging New Conventional Wisdom Beyond International Policing: Learning from Complex, Political Realities provides an innovative perspective in the field by conceptualizing international policing as part of a much broader system of peace and capacity development initiatives. Authors Bryn Hughes, Charles T. Hunt, and Jodie Curth-Bibb provide a thorough analysis of the current problems in the field, and subsequently offer a convincing argument for a new, post-Weberian approach.

Collaborative Policing, Monitoring & Evaluation: Program Management Framework

Forging New Conventional Wisdom Beyond International Policing: Learning from Complex, Political Realities provides an innovative perspective in the field by conceptualizing international policing as part of a much broader system of peace and capacity development initiatives. Authors Bryn Hughes, Charles T. Hunt, and Jodie Curth-Bibb provide a thorough analysis of the current problems in the field, and subsequently offer a convincing argument for a new, post-Weberian approach.

Chapter Eight Becoming Emotional about Assessment

Forging New Conventional Wisdom Beyond International Policing: Learning from Complex, Political Realities provides an innovative perspective in the field by conceptualizing international policing as part of a much broader system of peace and capacity development initiatives. Authors Bryn Hughes, Charles T. Hunt, and Jodie Curth-Bibb provide a thorough analysis of the current problems in the field, and subsequently offer a convincing argument for a new, post-Weberian approach.