Rens Willems is a project researcher and PhD candidate at the Centre for Conflict Studies (CCS) of Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His work focuses on international security interventions such as Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), Security Sector Reform (SSR) and Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) control and their relation to the local dynamics of security. He has done extensive field research in Eastern DRC, Burundi and South Sudan.