Security Sector Reforms in Post-Authoritarian African States: preliminary conclusions from the Nigerian and Tunisian cases

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to analyze two SSR attempts in African countries that underwent political transitions from authoritarian political regimes: Nigeria, where the reform efforts began in 1999, after the election of Olusegun Obasanjo, and Tunisia, after the demonstrations that resulted in the fall of Zine Ben Ali in 2011. The efforts of this article will focus on two fronts. The SSR processes will be analyzed in what refers to (i) the contexts immediately preceding the proposition of the reforms, seeking to identify the main political actors involved; (ii) the proposed policies reforms; (iii) the observable results; (iv) the external actors (donors) involved. Concurrently, the security context during the proposition and implementation of the reforms should be analyzed. The paper's hypothesis is that in these two countries, where the security forces played and still play a fundamental political role, levels of resistance to Security Sector Reforms will occur due to the maintenance of these actors' influence and especially to security imperatives. Despite the holistic vision of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2007) about the composition of a security community, this paper seeks to analyze only reforms at the Armed Forces, police, intelligence services and the services responsible for the monitoring of these institutions. In addition, preliminary conclusions will be sought since the processes are still in progress.