The Security Sector: Leviathan or Hydra?Article by Bjørn Møller in book on Security GovernanceSenior researcher Bjørn Møller (Defence and Security unit) has contributed an article on "The Security Sector: Leviathan or Hydra?" in an anthology on African Security Governance: Emergent Issues (Johannesburg: Wits University Press and Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2010). The article details, mainly with examples from Africa, how the 'security sector' has never really been controlled by the state (described as a one-headed monster, Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes and others) but rather resembles a multi-headed Hydra. Not only do state security agencies not always provide security to their citizens – indeed they sometimes pose threats to their security. Private, informal and other non-state agencies are often the main providers of security – e.g. in the form of private military and/or security companies, neighbourhood watch groups, militias and even vigilante groups. |
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