One constant in the ebb and flow of the Arab Spring has been the increased influence of public opinion on public policy. People's voices now matter to public institutions and governments in the Arab World. Few areas of public concern have had more resonance than the role of state security services in shaping and preserving un-democratic regimes. The notion that the primary responsibility of the security sector is to protect and preserve autocratic Arab regimes is widely discredited today and Arab citizens are now calling for security sector reform (SSR) to make the security services more accountable to citizens and to democratically-elected governments. Through applied survey research, this project, led by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), an independent Ramallah-based think tank, proposes to measure public response to changes undergoing in the security services of Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia, Yemen and the Palestinian Authority. The project will build on the work the center has already accomplished on SSR in the Palestinian territories with Centre support through an earlier project that recently came to a close. The new project will capture broader public perceptions and expectations toward the security sector. The surveys will focus on the sector's performance, capacity, response to developments on the ground, and its effectiveness in working with the justice sector. Special emphasis will be placed on assessing and documenting the perspectives of vulnerable groups, including women and children, to provide insight into how effective the security sector is in providing security to those who need it most and in addressing public security concerns as opposed to serving the interest of the ruling class.Ultimately, this three-year project will provide evidence-based data and knowledge on public perceptions on the security sector over time and, in so doing, will encourage civilian oversight and transparency in the security sector. Outputs will include a series of country reports, annual comparative reports, and a comprehensive index of public perceptions toward the security sectors of these five countries.