The purpose of this paper is to provide a survey of current discussion on ‘security sector reform’. Created only in the late 1990s, the term has spread rapidly in international discourses. It is now used in a number of contexts, ranging from its origin in the development donor community and to debate on reform in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe to changes in the major industrialised countries of Western Europe (Winkler, 2002).

This paper aims to clarify some of the aspects of the discussion on security sector reform, its origins, strengths and weaknesses. The emphasis is on the concept of
security sector reform, the ideas behind it, and its links to other discourses. Security sector reform has its roots in the development donor debate, an ongoing discussion among various groups of practitioners and theoreticians on how best to target and implement development assistance. This paper traces the quite diverse origins of this debate and how they contributed to the emergence of the concept of security sector reform.

It critically analyses the strengths, but also the inconsistencies and deficiencies, that the concept of security sector reform has inherited. It then looks at how the concept of security sector reform has evolved in development donor discourse. Furthermore, the question is asked why security sector reform is so difficult to implement in practice, despite wide acceptance of its principles. Finally, some suggestions are provided on how to develop the concept of security sector reform further, in respect to both its place among other concepts used in development discourse and in development donor practice.