post / 05 March 2026

IFIT Establishes Security Engagement Practice Group (SEPG) to Strengthen Civic-Security Dialogue

The Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) is pleased to announce the formation of the Security Engagement Practice Group (SEPG): a purpose-built group of distinguished experts focused on advancing constructive engagement between civic groups and state security actors in fragile, conflict-affected and hybrid regime contexts.

Civic groups and state security actors often operate at a distance from one another – a separation that can deepen mistrust and limit opportunities for meaningful policy dialogue. The SEPG aims to help close this divide by generating innovative knowledge, providing practical analysis and offering targeted advice to civic and security stakeholders on how to identify, cultivate and sustain trust-building engagement and dialogue.

Comprised of retired senior military figures, civil-military relations specialists, security sector reform experts, and civic diplomats, the SEPG builds on IFIT’s extensive in-country work engaging both civic groups and state security actors, and draws on findings from IFIT’s groundbreaking multiyear study, Dialogue with State Security Actors in Hybrid Regimes: Recommendations for Constructive Engagement.