Publication

This paper highlights the difficulties of spreading security sector reforms (SSR) amongst police and internal security forces in post-transition Arab states. Some of the impediments to SSR-driven change include 1) restrictive constitutional frameworks and political polarization; 2) the inability of declining states to uphold social order; 3) black economies and deepening illegality, both of which increase the costs of reform; and 4) the turn towards alternative forms of policing and customary law by everyday citizens, including those provided by militia-based security structures.