Based on interviews and archival work over 2017-2019, this paper (June 2019) examines the state of demobilization and security sector reform in South Sudan’s current fragile peace. It outlines the military-security reconstruction work of both the South Sudan government and its armed opposition, which is currently happening outside (and in defiance of) the peace agreement’s terms and control. The paper also sets out current critiques of the peace deal’s security and military provisions: that a ‘payroll peace’ that is structured around buying out military factions is incentivizing rebellion-for-profit and further recruitment; and secondly that this peace through brokerage between military leaders undermines civil state power and authority. The paper can be downloaded here.

The updated version of the paper will be published in 2020 in the Routledge Handbook on the Horn of Africa, edited by Jon Abbink, Hasan Mwakimako, Azza Ahmed et al.