conversion survey 2005

Despite progress in a number of areas, the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are unlikely to be met unless major policy changes occur. This year’s conversion survey advocates new approaches towards states in conflict and governments which fail to provide their citizens with basic security/welfare, arguing at the same time that high military spending detracts from the agreed goal of increasing overseas development aid. Such incontestable links between security and development hover in the background of the survey. While much lip-service is paid to the interdependence of the two, this seldom translates into integrated policies. Although the MDGs provide a powerful vision, what is still lacking is an added perspective aimed at improving people’s security by enhancing conflict prevention, post-conflict peacebuilding, and conversion. BICC analyzes global trends and developments over the last year by examining three issue areas: arms and resources; the conversion-related aspects of peacebuilding; and the link between natural resources and conflict. Three topical chapters subsequently explore certain aspects of conversion in more detail: how privatization is increasingly permeating the military sphere; options for implementing disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, especially DDR without camps; and two prominent cases of security sector reform (SSR), Afghanistan and Iraq.