HSS: Reconsidering International Security Sector Reform: The Case of Timor-Leste

The presentation revolves around the question, whether the Western notion of security sector management, that is, the institutional separation of the coercive agents (police, military and intelligence), can be implemented during foreign led state-building missions without considering the country’s legacy of maintaining the coercive sector. Based on extensive field research in Timor-Leste the presentation will assess the impact of several United Nations missions as well as underlying and alternative trends of security provision in Timor-Leste.