Karoline Eickhoff provides an in-depth analysis of the role that national ownership as a key policy principle of international development and peacebuilding plays in shaping the discourses and practices of external interventions in the context of the peace process in Mali. Engaging critically with the day-to-day work experience and perceptions of practitioners working on supporting the reform of the Malian security sector in 2015-2016,the author explores how external actors ‘make sense’ of an abstract policy model vis-à-vis other organisational demands and constraints arising at the field level. This book concludes with policy recommendations on how the gap between ownership policy and external actors’ field-level practices can be addressed.