2023 年 12 巻 1 号 p. 1-22
State security sectors play a significant part in violent intrastate conflicts. When conflicts move towards resolutionary phases, a fundamental reform of these institutions is often necessary so that resulting peaceful dispensations can be better maintained. The security forces in Northern Ireland are one such example. During the negotiations for the Belfast Agreement1 in the late 1990s, it was considered vital to ‘take the gun out of Irish politics’ not only from paramilitary organisations but also from state forces. Thus, four issues surrounding security in the region had to be addressed, namely the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons arsenals, police reform, the normalization of security arrangements, and political prisoner releases, with each regarded as a pre-condition for the other. Decommissioning had to be more than a gesture of commitment to justify police reform and the relaxation of security arrangements, as well as the early release of prisoners, while police reform and the withdrawal of British troops had to be imminent for paramilitary weapons to be abandoned. All of these were necessary for the negotiation of a workable political solution to proceed. This paper looks at police reform in Northern Ireland as a case study for Security Sector Reform and how it affects human security in the region as a part of a post-conflict reconstruction process.
