Nathan's new book tackles security sector reform

New on the bookshelves is Laurie Nathan's No Ownership, No Commitment: A guide to local ownership of security sector reform (University of Birmingham), commissioned by the Security Sector Reform Strategy of the UK Government's Global Conflict Prevention Pool.

The publication comes in the wake of Nathan's March visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York, where he participated in an Arria-style meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss security sector reform.

The former executive director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution at UCT, Nathan is now a research associate in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences and a visiting research fellow with the Crisis States Research Centre at the London School of Economics.

In her introduction Dr Frene Ginwala, now chancellor of the University of KwaZulu/Natal and a member of the Ministerial Review Commission on Intelligence in South Africa, wrote: 'This is a crucial lesson for countries that have been shattered by war and become dependent on foreign donors and international agencies for aid and reconstruction support ' Sometimes the support offered is based on the national perspective and interests of the donors, rather than the needs of the people.'

Nathan said that South Africa's successful transition to democracy highlighted the significance of local ownership.