This research investigates how strategic leadership contributes to strengthening crisis management within the training centres of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, with particular attention to the mediating influence of human resource capabilities (HRC). The study employed a sample comprising 202 participants, including general managers, assistant managers, and departmental heads within the security sector, a group that has received limited attention in management scholarship. Data analysis was conducted through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The findings indicated significant positive associations between strategic leadership and HRC, between strategic leadership and crisis management, and between HRC and crisis management. Furthermore, results from the Sobel test confirmed that HRC serves as a complete mediator in the link between strategic leadership and crisis management, with the indirect effect proving stronger than the direct relationship. These outcomes emphasise that training centres enhance strategic leadership by cultivating strategic thinking and leadership competencies. Nonetheless, security organisations in non-Western contexts, which operate amid persistent instability, encounter substantial difficulties due to their restricted familiarity with contemporary management approaches concerning HRC and crisis management.