Designing Security Institutions in Developing Countries

Session Submission Type: Full Submitted Panel

Session Description

Developing countries around the world vary dramatically in how they organize their domestic security institutions, military and civilian, in response to violent threats such as crime, insurgency, and terrorism. This proposed panel seeks to advance our understanding of the design of domestic security institutions, including militaries, police, paramilitaries, and militias.

In contrast to research on why violent threats emerge and gain momentum, far less attention has been paid to examining how governments organize their security institutions to gather intelligence, formulate coherent policies, communicate across agencies, and coordinate multiple field operations in order to counter these threats. The data and analysis generated by the papers on this panel contribute to this important and policy relevant research area. Analyzing how security institutions are set up to fulfill these complex tasks may provide the insights necessary to enhance the capacity of governments to respond to emerging threats, particularly in fragile and transitional states facing insurgency or terrorist networks within their borders.

Together the papers analyze a number of different factors shaping the design of these domestic security institutions. Arriola, Matanock, and Mattes analyze the effect of foreign military assistance on these institutions, and Blank analyzes the effect of state formation processes on these institutions; De Bruin examines the correlates of coup-proofing, or counterbalancing, processes, while Harkness examines when ethnic stacking practices take place. Each study introduces new cross national data.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 21: CONFLICT PROCESSES

Chair

• Michaela Mattes UC-Berkeley

Discussant

• James D. Morrow University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Individual Presentations

• Examining the Institutional Effects of Military-to-Military Assistance - Leonardo R. Arriola, University of California, Berkeley; Aila M. Matanock, University of California-Berkeley; Michaela Mattes, UC-Berkeley

• When Do Rulers Counterbalance? New Evidence from Developing States - Erica Susanne De Bruin, Hamilton College

• Can They Deal? Conflict and Cooperation Networks in Collective Decision-Making - Alan Keith Dugger

• Ethnicity and the Military in Africa: New Data on Ethnic Stacking Practices - Kristen A. Harkness, University of St. Andrews