Traditional leaders and policing

A new article by Peter Albrecht explores the role of traditional leaders during almost 20 years of police reform in Sierra Leone. It is published in Third World Thematics as part of a forthcoming special issue, Critical hybridity: history, power and scale.

The article critiques dichotomies between state and non-state actors, traditional leaders specifically. It does so by analyzing how the politics of police reform has played out between Sierra Leone’s government and its main international supporter, the UK government since the late 1990s. The original intention behind police reform in Sierra Leone originally was to establish and consolidate a state system, and in the process marginalize other actors that play a central role in enforcing order. Traditional leaders were never fundamentally engaged in the process, yet plays a vital role in providing security and justice at the local level.