Description
Recent transformations in global security assistance are reshaping Security Sector Reform (SSR) in ways that challenge its normative foundations. Once rooted in liberal peacebuilding logics emphasizing governance, accountability, and integrity, SSR is increasingly shaped by transactionalism, militarisation, and pragmatic strategic imperatives. This paper examines how these post-liberal shifts affect integrity within defence and security institutions, with a focus on U.S. security assistance and its ripple effects across the UK and Europe. Drawing on practitioner insight and comparative case analysis, the paper shows that integrity has been increasingly instrumentalised or sidelined in SSR processes. Procedural compliance often substitutes for substantive governance reform, eroding accountability norms and prioritising militarised outcomes over development, peace, and ethical governance. These dynamics reveal hidden insecurities and structural vulnerabilities within SSR, including corruption risks, weakened oversight, and the gap between stated reform objectives and operational realities. By analysing SSR through a post-liberal, integrity-focused lens, the paper contributes to critical debates on the political economy of security assistance and the ethics of reform. It demonstrates how recognising the normative and institutional consequences of transactional security approaches can inform more effective, accountable, and sustainable SSR practice.
