Stabilization of fragile states

Promoting recovery from is not limited to simply a humanitarian, security or development issue and often involves a combination of all three. Stabilization is an approach and a process regarding the fragility and security of states. Hence, stabilization is an essential concept in relation to fragile and failed states, where basic institutions and services are lacking and where conflict is an influential factor. OECD uses the term from fragility to resilient to describe the process of stabilization.

Stabilization processes are a multisectoral effort, requiring a variety different instruments that seek to secure the basic needs of the population and support the development of state-building to ensure the process is sustainable and builds stronger and more legitimate states These actions are primarily taken by western governments and national actors often involving a combination of military, political, development and humanitarian objectives, resources and activities to tackle transnational and domestic threats through short term security promotion.

Stabilization, as it is currently articulated and implemented by the US and other Western governments, is premised on an assumption that weak governance, instability, violent conflict and associated poverty and underdevelopment pose a direct threat to their strategic interests and international peace and security more broadly. This is because ‘islands of instability’ are seen as constituting sources of regional insecurity and contagion, particularly in their association with international terrorism, transnational crime and other real and existential threats. While stabilization is firmly rooted in security agendas focused on reducing or eliminating perceived threats, accumulated experience of international intervention and engagement to end conflicts and foster peace and development over the past decade has emphasized the need to integrate military, political, development and humanitarian action. In contexts as diverse as Afghanistan, Haiti and Timor-Leste, stabilization has emerged therefore as a key instrument of a broader liberal, transformative peace-building project. As such, it extends beyond short-term or conservative objectives to eliminate immediate threats or merely to ‘stabilize’ temporarily situations of acute crisis to link action across a range of discrete policy spheres with the aim of reducing violence and establishing the political and social conditions necessary for recovery, reconstruction, development and a lasting peace.

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Wikipedia