THE INFLUENCE OF RESEARCH ON STATE BUILDING POLICY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SECURITY SECTOR REFORM: THE CASE OF SIERRA LEONE Andrea Edoardo Varisco (BA, MA, MA) PHD University of York Politics Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit April 2014 Abstract Over the last few decades, international organisations and bilateral donors have progressively promoted externally-led state building and Security Sector Reform (SSR) as two of the principal policy approaches to enhance state legitimacy and promote stability and security in countries emerging from conflicts. At the same time, the state building and SSR research agendas have grown exponentially and the quest for evidence-based policies has increasingly become an important aspect for international and British decision-makers working in fragile, conflict-affected countries. Nonetheless, the use and uptake of state building and SSR-oriented research findings by those involved in policy-making has remained a largely under-studied field of research, and enquiry into the research-policy nexus has rarely approached the issues of state building and SSR. This PhD research seeks to compensate for this gap in the literature by investigating the extent to which research has influenced and interacted with SSR policies, programmes and activities implemented by the United Kingdom (UK) in conflict-affected Sierra Leone. The thesis uses concepts and notions from the literature on the policy process and research utilisation to explore the ways in which research has influenced UK-led SSR policy. It analyses the evolution of the network of policy- makers, street-level bureaucrats, and researchers working on SSR in Sierra Leone, and argues that two main variables – an increased stability in the country and a progressive evolution of SSR in policy and research – contributed to the expansion of the policy network over time and to a better use of research by street-level bureaucrats on the ground. The thesis tests the applicability of the literature on the research-policy nexus to the challenge of state building and SSR in conflict-affected environments, deriving from the Sierra Leone case study a series of recommendations to improve the use of research by international organisations and bilateral donors working in fragile states. 2 List of contents List of contents 3 List of figures 6 Acknowledgments 7 Author’s declaration 10 1. Introduction 1.1 Empirical context and argument 11 1.2 The gap: the quest for evidence-based policy 19 1.3 Setting the scene: the Sierra Leone Civil War and British-led SSR policy 25 1.3.1 The seeds of the conflict 25 1.3.2 The Civil War (1991-2002) 28 1.3.3 British-led SSR activities in Sierra Leone 34 1.4 Theoretical approach 36 1.5 The structure of the thesis 40 PART I –THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS 44 2. Policy networks and research utilisation into policy 2.1 Introduction 48 2.2 Policy network analysis 50 2.2.1 The dialectic approach to policy networks 58 2.3 The role of epistemic communities in the policy process 60 2.4 Theories and paradigms of research utilisation 64 2.5 Conclusion 71 3. State building and SSR in fragile, conflict-affected environments 3.1 Introduction 73 3.2 (Re)building fragile, conflict affected states: a three-phase evolution in policy and research 77 3.2.1 Cold War approaches: from the Marshall Plan to the Washington Consensus 77 3.2.2 Post-Cold War evolution 79 3 3.2.2.1 Phase 1: early reflection (1990s-2001) 82 3.2.2.2 Phase 2: post-shock recovery (2001-2004) 86 3.2.2.3 Phase 3: proactive engagement (2005-today) 88 3.2.3 Main trends in British state building policy network 96 3.3 SSR: the armed wing of state building 98 3.4 The use of research in state building and SSR: a policy network model 105 3.5 Conclusion 115 4. Methodology 4.1 Introduction 118 4.2 Methods 119 4.3 Practical limitations of the research 129 4.4 Ethical considerations 132 4.5 Conclusion 133 PART II – LINKING THEORY TO PRACTICE 135 5. The influence of research on British-led SSR policy in conflict-affected Sierra Leone: first period (1996-2002), ‘fire-fighting’ solutions 5.1 Introduction 137 5.2 The context and stability situation 139 5.3 The policy and research evolution 147 5.3.1 The policy evolution in the UK 148 5.3.2 The research evolution in the UK 151 5.3.3 The policy evolution in Sierra Leone 156 5.4 The role of knowledge in British-led SSR policy in Sierra Leone 167 5.5 Conclusion 183 6. The influence of research on British-led SSR policy in conflict-affected Sierra Leone: post-war period (2002-2013) 6.1 Introduction 186 6.2 The context and stability situation 188 6.3 The policy and research evolution 193 4 6.3.1 The policy evolution in the UK 194 6.3.2 The research evolution in the UK 197 6.3.3 The policy evolution in Sierra Leone 202 6.4 The role of knowledge in British-led SSR policy in Sierra Leone 214 6.5 Conclusion 230 PART III – SINTHESIS 232 7. Research influence on policy: when, why, and how? 7.1 Introduction 233 7.2 When research influences policy: a typology 234 7.3 Why? The role of policy networks and the ingredients of high impact 239 7.4 How? The different use of research in policy 243 7.5 Conclusion 245 8. Conclusions and recommendations 8.1 Introduction 246 8.2 The influence of research on SSR policy: explanatory conclusions from the Sierra Leone case study 248 8.3 Recommendations 256 8.4 The bigger picture: the importance and limits of this PhD and possible future research directions 267 Appendix: distinctions between the PhD and its overarching project 273 Glossary: list of abbreviations 278 List of references 282 5 List of figures Figure 1 Chronology of the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991-2002) 28 Figure 2 Chronology of SSR and international activities in Sierra Leone 34 Figure 3 British-led SSR programmes in Sierra Leone 35 Figure 4 Visual map of the theoretical foundations of the thesis 44 Figure 5 The characteristics of the policy networks 56 Figure 6 Revised payback model of the research and policy process 70 Figure 7 Armed conflict by type, 1946-2012 80 Figure 8 Official Development Assistance (ODA) to fragile and non- fragile states, 1995-2007 91 Figure 9 State building and SSR policy network 111 Figure 10 First period, ‘fire-fighting’ solutions: the policy network 1 3 8 Figure 11 First period, ‘fire-fighting’ solutions: the policy actors in the UK 149 Figure 12 First period, ‘fire-fighting’ solutions: the research actors in the UK 15 2 Figure 13 First period, ‘fire-fighting’ solutions: the policy actors in Sierra Leone 157 Figure 14 First period, ‘fire-fighting’ solutions: the research actors in Sierra Leone 182 Figure 15 Second period, post-conflict years: the policy network 187 Figure 16 Second period, post-conflict years: the policy actors in the UK 19 5 Figure 17 Second period, post-conflict years: the research actors in the UK 197 Figure 18 Second period, post-conflict years: the policy actors in Sierra Leone 203 Figure 19 Second period, post-conflict years: the research actors in Sierra Leone 214 Figure 20 The impact of research by type 235 6 Acknowledgments This PhD thesis would not have been possible without the help and support of numerous colleagues and friends, to whom I owe my deepest gratitude. First of all, I am extremely grateful to my principal supervisor Professor Sultan Barakat, who initially selected me as the PhD student for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)/Department for International Development (DFID)-funded research project ‘The Influence of DFID-Sponsored State Building-Oriented Research on British Policy in Fragile, Post-Conflict Environments’. Over these three years, he has consistently provided his insightful feedback to my work, supporting my academic and professional career and giving me the opportunity to contribute to the work of the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit (PRDU). My co-supervisors have been equally supportive and important for my work. Dr. Felicity Matthews followed the initial part of my research; Dr. Adam White took over from Felicity and guided my work in the last two years. I really appreciated the efforts and time they both dedicated to me, and I am very grateful to both of them, particularly Adam for giving me his superb advice on how to structure my thesis and for carefully following my work in these final months. Besides the official supervisors, regular conversations with the lead researcher in the ESRC/DFID project, Dr. Thomas Waldman, have been extremely important for my work. Tom’s judgement, support, and feedback have been an invaluable source of wisdom for my thesis, and it was a real pleasure for me working with him in York, Freetown, and Kabul. I am also indebted to several of my colleagues at the PRDU. The ‘PRDU family’ has been in these years a continuous source of inspiration and support for me. In particular, I would like to thank Ms. Kathryn Rzeszut for kindly accepting to read earlier versions of my work and providing me her useful feedback. I am grateful to Dr. Sean Deely, Dr. David Connolly, Dr. Claire Smith, Dr. Kenneth Bush, Dr. Rajesh Venugopal, Dr. Kelsey Shanks, Dr. Mark Clegg, Dr. Alex Lewis, Ms. Katie Bishop, and the interns who worked with us during these three years: I was very lucky to have such great colleagues and I really learnt a lot from them.