Andrej Sotlar

Short Resume

Andrej Sotlar holds a doctorate in defence studies (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia). He is a Professor at the Faculty of Security Sciences of the University of Maribor, Slovenia. In the years 2015–2023, he was a Dean of the faculty. He teaches courses related to national and private security. Lately, he has participated in research projects in the field of security and safety in local communities, urban security, plural policing, radicalisation and extremism, private security, private detective activity and municipal policing. His research interests also include security policy, sources of threats and the changing role of various security organizations. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Criminal Justice and Security.

Title of the presentation

The Changing Security Sector – Decentralised, Pluralised and Privatised but Still Effective and Accountable?

Abstract

From the end of the 20th century on, states began to change and adapt their security concepts and security sectors to be as "human-friendly" as possible, in other words, to better serve people’s needs in local communities. In practice, this meant that powers and responsibilities in the field of security were increasingly transferred from the state to regions, municipalities and even companies, making security sectors more and more decentralized, pluralised and privatised. Even traditional security organizations such as the police and the armed forces were forced to change Responding to the complex security challenges such as terrorism, mass illegal migrations and COVID-19, they changed in the direction of multi-functionality, which sometimes blurred their powers and responsibilities. The aforementioned processes therefore once again bring to the fore the question of the effectiveness of the security sector on the one hand and the accountability of policymakers and security actors on the other.

Keywords

security, pluralisation, privatisation, effectiveness, accountability