The paper thus only deals with one partial aspect of the current usage of the term security sector reform, namely its relation to economic and social development, and in particular to its attraction for organisations involved in development policy. It is also limited in other ways. For instance, it does not provide specific recommendations for actors involved in security sector reform or for those wishing to support it from the outside – the focus of much of the available literature on security sector reform (see e.g. Ball, 1998a and 2002, Chalmers, 2000, Wulf, 2000a, Cooper and Pugh, 2002, Lilly et al, 2002). Finally, the paper does not include an evaluation of the practical experiences gained in the application of security sector reform. That task has been initiated by a working group of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD which is likely to present a report in early 2004. At this time there is no overview of donor practice in security sector reform and much of the discussion is based on a few examples, often drawn from a few countries, with which a contributor to the debate is familiar. This paper aims to provide a corollary for the outstanding thorough analysis of development donor practice, namely a better understanding of the objectives, capabilities and limitations of the concept of security sector reform.