This handbook begins from the premise that people and states must be secure
from the fear of violence at the local, national, regional and international
levels if an enabling environment for sustainable political and economic
development is to be created. This means both that states must be adequately
protected against aggression and internal subversion and that the lives
of ordinary people must not be crippled by state repression, violent conflict,
or rampant criminality.
There are many ways to provide physical security. One of these is by creating
security services mandated to use force to protect the state and its population.
It is important for every society to ask if it needs security organisations
and if so, what kind of security organisations should be created and how
will these security organisations be governed?
It is particularly important for African countries to ask these questions
because since the beginning of the colonial period, African security organisations
have frequently been a cause of insecurity for both the state and its population,
rather than a means of guaranteeing individual and collective security.
African governments have often failed to abide by the rule of law in their
relations with their neighbours or their own population. Many of sub-Saharan
Africa's recent wars have their roots in élite attempts to protect their
privileged position domestically or to undermine other African governments
whose foreign policies are viewed as injurious to the ability of these élites
to remain in power.
What is more, African historical experience demonstrates that if internal
and external security are not viewed as two sides of the same coin, it will
be difficult to create societies that function on the basis of the rule
of law and protect individual security. All too often, the armed forces
have been given - or have appropriated - the responsibility for guaranteeing
law and order. While there are conditions under which the armed forces can
provide aid to the civil power, domestic policing is not a task for which
they are well suited. Attempting to assume this task can also hamper their
ability to carry out other constitutionally mandated tasks, such as protecting
the state. This problem has been compounded by the failure to provide police
and gendarmerie forces and other portions of the public safety/criminal
justice system with the resources they require to guarantee law and order.
This handbook will describe how to develop a process for allocating both
tasks and resources among the different security organisations that protect
both the state and its population. It recognises, however, that in parts
of Africa this process will take place in an environment where the state
no longer has a monopoly over the means of violence.
The inability of African security organisations to provide a safe and secure
environment for economic and political development arises to a large degree
out of poor governance - both of the state in general and of the security
sector in particular. This handbook is concerned with democratic governance
of the security sector. While public-sector institutions will be a major
focus of the following chapters, democratic governance implies more than
the effective and efficient management of the security sector. It requires
a legitimate, transparent, and trusted state that is accountable to its
citizens. Achieving democratic governance is a deeply political undertaking.
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