The Sentinel and the Rebel: Multi-choice Policing in Burundi and the State-Centered Approach of Security Sector Reform

Private security beyond private military and security companies: exploring diversity within private-public collaborations and its consequences for security governance

“…Biaumet's article [26] offers an intriguing case study of two grassroots policing arrangements in Burundi -the use of informal 'sentinels', guarding virtually every commercial and domestic buildings in the capital city, and the reconversion of former bandits into security guards in palm oil fields. Their existence challenges the Western notions of 'security governance' and 'security sector reform' and suggests that in postconflict settings, at least two types of 'security governance' coexist -a global security assemblage backboned by donors' discourses on state empowerment and involving coordination processes between formal (or growingly formalized) actors of security; and the local self-policing arrangements falling de facto out-of-scope of any public management.…”

“…Having benefitted from the state of exception rationale enabled by the War on Drugs, the private prison system reinforced its own role by lobbying political actors for harsher immigration legislation in view to increasing its profits. Biaumet's case study on Burundi [26] suggests that in a transitioning context, where different agents and normativitiesnamely the government, the police, corporate security actors, donor states and institutions, individuals, transnational norms on (private) security and local dynamics -are intertwined in the provision of security, discrepancies between donor discourses and local dynamics remain at work. To a certain extent, these discrepancies reflect the theoretical debate over the state's role in security governance, particularly in postconflict contexts where concerns about democratic oversight, the rule of law and accountability abound.…”

“…In particular, it analyses, firstly, the societal and political outcomes of tasking non-security related businesses with security responsibilities, and, secondly, the consequences of having traditional state sectors become increasingly dependent upon private capabilities and resources. This section is composed of three articles: the first one, which is authored by Aarstad [25], is entitled 'Maritime Security and Transformations in Global Governance'; the second one, written by Biaumet [26], focuses on 'The sentinel and the rebel. Multi-choice policing in Burundi and the state-centered approach of security sector reform '; and the final article, by Saldivar and Price [27], is on 'The Social and Political Impact of the New (Private) National Security: Securitization of immigration in the United States Post 9/11′.…”

What Is Our Research For? Responsibility, Humility and the Production of Knowledge about Burundi

“…The peace process itself was a popular topic, including constitutional provisions and power-sharing and controversies (Vandeginste, 2009, 2011), transitional justice (Ingelaere and Kohlhagen, 2012; Samii, 2013; Vandeginste, 2012), the role of outside actors (Campbell, 2018; Curtis, 2013; Wilén and Williams, 2018; Wodrig and Grauvogel, 2016), and popular perceptions (Uvin, 2009). A number of authors have researched questions of governance, land and rural issues (Berckmoes and White, 2014; Gaynor, 2014; Nyenyezi and Ansoms, 2014; Purdeková, 2017), gender (Daley, 2007; Martin de Almagro, 2016; Saiget, 2016), the security sector (Biaumet, 2017; Nindorera, 2011; Wilén, 2016), and former armed groups including the CNDD-FDD ruling party (Alfieri, 2016; Burihabwa, 2017; Burihabwa and Curtis, 2019; Rufyikiri, 2017; Van Acker, 2016; Wittig, 2016). The experiences of Burundi were also often analysed as part of larger comparative studies, particularly on topics such as consociational power-sharing and institutional conflict management (Cheeseman, 2011; Mehler, 2013) and mediation (Khadiagala, 2007; Sisk, 2008).…”