This background paper aims to spell out the central role of parliaments in the growing security discourse. The argument of the paper is two-fold: first, the paper argues that democracy is an important element for ensuring the peaceful resolution of conflict; and second, the democratization of the security sector is an important condition both for reducing insecurity and for consolidating democracy and good governance. This is mainly because the lack of security for the state and for its citizens is a major obstacle to political, social, and economic development. Simply put, democratic control of the security forces is a sine qua non for both democracy and development.