THE DUAL-RESPONSIBILITY SECURITY MODEL (DRSM): A FRAMEWORK FOR MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN PEACE AND SECURITY PRACTICE

Traditional security thinking has long centered on the state as the sole guardian of order and protection (Waltz, 1979; Buzan, 1991). While this approach once offered coherence within the framework of sovereignty and legitimacy, it has struggled to keep pace with the evolving and borderless threats of the twenty-first century. Human security scholarship shifted attention from territorial defense to individual safety (UNDP, 1994; Sen, 2000), yet it rarely clarified how responsibility for protection should be balanced between the state and citizens. Likewise, peacebuilding theory, particularly in the work of Lederach (1997), emphasized the moral and relational dimensions of peace but left the practical question of accountability unresolved. The Dual-Responsibility Security Model (DRSM) proposed by Bello and Shatambaya (2025) responds to this gap. It brings together the insights of human security, peacebuilding, and social-contract theory into a single framework that defines security as a co-produced public good. The model argues that peace is sustainable only when both the state and society fulfill at least seventy percent of their respective responsibilities. In doing so, DRSM transforms security from a vertical system of control into a horizontal partnership based on reciprocity and trust. Conceptually, it reframes protection not as a privilege dispensed by power but as a shared ethical and civic project. By operationalizing mutual accountability within measurable bounds, the model offers both a theoretical innovation and a practical tool for building participatory, people-centered security governance.