Solomon Bunting Caulker

Post-Conflict Security Sector Governance in Sierra Leone: Deficits as Inhibitors of National Development

Supervisors: Professor Stefan Wolff and Professor Paul Jackson

Research Group: British Politics Research Group

Solomon CaulkerSolomon’s research examines how security and development have interacted as a mutually-reinforcing nexus in Sierra Leone’s post-conflict political history.  Through the analytical lens of the security-development ‘nexus’, it is an exploration into how the security sector has/has not supported national socio-economic development while it has been consistently situated in post-conflict development and poverty reduction policy. While there is ample scholarly agreement on the normative interlinkages between the two concepts as well as being a widely-utilised policy approach, it is also argued that the two concepts are not seen to be working concertedly in practice; that there is inadequacy of evidence to provide it theoretical entrenchment. The study seeks to explore the nexus as the two concepts interact at policy, practice and scholarly research domains. Using Sierra Leone as a case study with particular utilisation of ‘process tracing’ to manifest co-variation and causal inferences, it juxtaposes the security and development realms in Sierra Leone through the exploration of the history of violent conflict, with particular examination of the role and governance of the security sector post-independence through to present time, bringing out the relationship between security and development policy and how the ‘securitization’ of development in the post-conflict era has manifested itself.

Qualifications

  • BA Hons – University of Sierra Leone
  • MA Peace & Development Studies – Njala University, Sierra Leone
  • MA International Relations [Security] – University of Birmingham (Chevening Scholar)
  • PhD Candidate (Commonwealth Scholar)

Research interests

  • Security Studies
  • Armed Conflict
  • Post-conflict Peacebuilding
  • Security Sector Reform & Governance
  • Transnational Organised Crime
  • Terrorism

Biography

Solomon is a senior member of the Sierra Leone security sector serving as Director of Research & Assessments at the Office of National Security. He has undertaken a series of short professional courses including the following: Basic Secret Intelligence Collection, Intelligence & Security Threat Assessment, National Security Exercise Writing, Defence Resource Management, International Seminar on National Security, Strategic Planning & Policy Development, Intelligence Cycle Management, Using Interpol Tools for Organised Crime Investigations, Using goCase Intelligence/Investigations Analysis Tool, Maritime Security & Transnational Organised Crime, National Strategies in Countering & Preventing Violent Extremism in Africa, Transnational Organised Crime for Law Enforcement Agents.

He has provided short-term consultancies for UNODC law enforcement project in Liberia (2018/2019) and facilitated at in a workshop on Border Management & Migrants Rights at the Legon Center for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD), University of Ghana.

Prior to this, Solomon worked for five years as a Lecturer and Part time Lecturer of English (Use of English & communication Skills) at Fourah Bay College and Milton Margai Collage of Education & Technology respectively. Since joining the Office of National Security, he served as Desk Officer in the Joint Assessment Team (JAT) for two years before being appointed Director of a newly established Directorate of Serious Organised Crime Coordination.  He is currently Director of Research & Assessments, a position he has held since 2018. He is now in his eighteenth year of service at the Office of National Security. His key competences are policy analysis, strategic coordination and planning, research, drafting and presentation.  

He is an alumnus of the British Chevening Scholarship programme and is currently a Commonwealth Scholar. 

Professional memberships

  • Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (alumnus)
  • George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Germany (alumnus)
  • Global Counterterrorism Task Force (participant)
  • Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Training Centre, Ghana (alumnus)
  • International Centre for National Security Studies, Galilee College, Israel (alumnus)

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