Managing and Reforming the Defence Sector

This document is a report of an ISS seminar held on October 12, 2009, in Pretoria, featuring keynote speaker David Chuter. The seminar focused on the discourse of defence transformation and the management and reform of the defence sector, specifically discussing Chuter's new book which updates his previous 2000 monograph on the subject.

• A well-functioning security sector is identified as a fundamental pre-condition for stability in any state, which in turn ensures social, political, and economic development.
• Security Sector Reforms (SSR) are intended to provide democratically-elected political leaders with leverage over the security sector to ensure governance, control, and oversight. However, these reforms often face strong resistance from military professionals who view civilian oversight as interference in military affairs.
• David Chuter proposes a policy hierarchy where government policy is the most important, followed by foreign policy, security policy, and finally defence, police, and intelligence policy. In this framework, defence policy is the process of employing defence sector assets to optimally contribute to the goals of the nation's security policy.
• Chuter argues that the traditional 19th-century European concept of 'threat' has become less important since 1945. He posits that while all threats are tasks, not all tasks are threats, and the military's role is to underpin state foreign and domestic policies through the threat or use of violence.
• Regarding intelligence sector management, Chuter suggests that 'tasking' is a more effective method of management than introducing layers of control, and that stating what should be done is more productive than stating what should not be done.
• The seminar participants discussed the need for practical applications in civil-military relations, noting that such relationships must be based on mutual respect and understanding to function.

APA

Institute for Security Studies (2009). Managing and Reforming the Defence Sector. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/12OCT09NOTES.PDF

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. Managing and Reforming the Defence Sector. 2009. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/12OCT09NOTES.PDF.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=Managing and Reforming the Defence Sector |date=12 October 2009 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/12OCT09NOTES.PDF |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudies2009managing, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{Managing and Reforming the Defence Sector}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2009}, month = oct, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/12OCT09NOTES.PDF}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }