Security Sector Reform and Donor Assistance in Serbia - Defence ...

Security Sector Reform and Donor Assistance in Serbia:Complexity of Managing ChangeDr Amadeo WatkinsKey Findings The effective and efficient provision of security is one of the mainrequirements for sustainable peace and economic development. Hence,Security Sector Reform (SSR) in its broader sense is an important aspect notonly in post-conflict environments, but also in more advanced transitionenvironments like Serbia. In terms of reform, the complexity of the challenge in Serbia is immense, asthe country represents a rare case of simultaneous quadruple transition: postcommunist/authoritarianreforms, post-conflict recovery, economic transitionand EU integration. Domestic stakeholders, who should act as the primary change agents, havenot found sufficient will (and interest) to initiate reforms more forcefully and doso in a strategic manner, raising questions about leadership capacity. Hence,the role of external factors, both bilateral and multilateral stakeholders, hasbeen significant. Despite years of experience and available expertise, this external assistancehas not yielded expected results. The paper argues that Serbia has managedover a period of 7-8 years to complete the first generation of SSR reform, butis lost in its attempt to move more deeply into the more advanced secondgeneration of reforms. The overriding conclusion is the need to provide assistance in a morecoordinated and strategic manner, avoiding conflicting duplication, with moreattention given to promoting local ownership and sustainability, ensuringsecurity and defence structures are addressed as part of one publicadministration system and not as a ‘system within a system’.iiii