Iss.co.za
Title
- . Institute for Security Studies --- Researching Human Security in Africa .:
Description
The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) was originally established as the Institute for Defence Policy by Dr Jakkie Cilliers, and Mr PB Mertz in 1991 and has offices in Pretoria, Cape Town, Nairobi and Addis Ababa.
The ISS is a regional research institute operating across sub-Saharan Africa. It is a non-profit trust registered in terms of section 6(1) of the Trust Property Control Act, 1988. Dr Cilliers is the current executive director of ISS and co-trustee together with Advocate Selby Baqwa, Head: Corporate Governance of the Nedcor group and Justice Lucy Mailula, Johannesburg High Court. The Institute is also registered as a non- profit organisation in term of the Non-Profit Organisations Act, 1997 (No 71 of 1997).
As a leading African human security research institution, the Institute is guided by a broad approach to security reflective of the changing nature and origin of threats to human development. This approach is reflected by the term human security – which, transcending a narrow focus on traditional state-centric national security concerns - brings additional areas of focus such as human rights, good governance (political and economic), personal and community security (crime), justice, refugee movements and internal displacement, food security, sustainable livelihoods, etc. If human development is freedom from want (a process widening the range of people’s choices), human security can be understood as the ability to pursue those choices in a safe and equitable environment. Practically this reflects the conviction that African development requires a democratic context and a vibrant civil society.
The ability (and capacity) to engage the international debate on human security issues from the region is an important component of our work and we therefore seek to inform the debate with an African perspective. In this sense our long-term goal is to establish an African strategic studies institute able to compete and engage with the best internationally on those issues pertinent to continental security issues. Staff quality is therefore a key recruitment criterion.
