Following the long trail of critique that emerged from first- and second-generation security sector reform (SSR) programs, this paper introduces a new theoretical framework for the socio-political analysis of the security sector that will enhance the potential for reform and transformation. This introduction to the special issue gathers shared considerations among authors researching the security sector in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and promotes a dialogue for the improvement of the analysis of the sector within its socio-political context. Drawing from Sociology of Power, we aim to provide analytical and theoretical tools in order to develop a new conception of the “security sector,” which differs from what mainstream academia, think tanks, and public policies have traditionally dealt with.

The interest of the Lebanese elites who launched the security sector reform (SSR) process was in to regain control and influence over the security sector more than to create independent institutions respectful of human rights. At a time of deep social and political crisis, not only had these actors lost their previous influence on the security sector but also this sector had become a source of power, largely in the hands of their political opponents, and was being used against them. This case illustrates how power competition between elites can disrupt the process of SSR, or even be the very origin of the conception of SSR programs.

This article opens a dialogue between different notions of conflict and the sociology of power and suggests a new theoretical framework for the analysis of international conflicts. Refusing to consider abstract entities as actors, it helps us better determine who the relevant actors are in each international conflict and gives special attention to the existing power relations between them. Accordingly, it is considered that a large social system is made up of numerous actors with multiple conflicts between them. Thus, in the case of international conflicts, we do not face one single conflict, but a conflictual complex involving a multitude of actors with their different power resources, who weave a network of conflicts and power relations between them, and at its top a dominant conflict, the conflict around which the other conflicts evolve. Acknowledging the complexity of international conflicts, this new theoretical approach should better explain both the behaviour of the actors and the evolution of the conflictual complex itself.