The EU and Security Sector Reform: An Evaluation of Concepts and Practices.

The Commission and the Council of European Union have recently started to work on a common concept of "Security Sector Reform" (SSR) so as to be able to cooperate more closely when engaging in 'fragile states'. By mid 2007, we have two separate concept papers and an increasing record of EU missions in the Balkans, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and in Afghanistan, which have the objectives of either reforming the police or the justice systems, key aspects of SSR. This paper has three aims: first, it discusses the similarities and differences in the two concept papers and then it outlines a framework for understanding the competing interests, ideas and institutions that are shaping the evolution of this policy-area by taking into account divergent hypotheses present in competing paradigms. The third aim is to examine the manner and extent to which the EU is applying the principle of "ownership" to some of the most recent and ongoing missions that it is undertaking in the Balkans and in sub-Saharan Africa. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]