Stability and Stability Operations: Definitions, Drivers, Approaches^†

† The papers included in this Special Issue originated from a workshop held at the University of Trento on 2–3 February 2018, titled ‘Low Expectations? Stabilization and Stability Operations as the “New Normal” in International Interventions’.

Abstract

The notion of ‘stability’ and the practice of ‘stability operations’ experienced a revival in the last decade. The paper shows how different actors (UN, NATO, US and European countries) have been using the concept ‘stability’ in their recent doctrines. It then shows how as a multi-faceted notion stability can benefit from methodological pluralism, how actors adopt different and even conflicting meanings across a range of different cases and stability operations seem to carry troubling political and normative implications. In sum, this introductory essay specifies how the present collection contributes to the literature and the ongoing policy debate by dissecting the notions of stability and stability operations.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to both the University’s Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence and the Department of Sociology and Social Research for their generous logistical support. An early occasion to discuss the theme was provided by the Conference ‘Projecting Stability in an Unstable World’ organized by the University of Bologna, the Istituto Affari Internazionali and NATO – Allied Command Transformation held in Bologna on 10–11 May 2017. Revised versions of these papers were also discussed at the 12th Pan-European Conference on International Relations held in Prague on 12–15 September 2018.

ORCID

Roberto Belloni http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9384-9182

Francesco N. Moro http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7656-5153

Notes

† The papers included in this Special Issue originated from a workshop held at the University of Trento on 2–3 February 2018, titled ‘Low Expectations? Stabilization and Stability Operations as the “New Normal” in International Interventions’.

1. On concept and concept formation in the social sciences, and how coherence is a key but not the only criterion of conceptual goodness, see Gerring (1999).

2. More broadly, literature on civil wars has been for a decade looking at the local dynamics of conflicts to explain their outbreak and violence (Cederman & Gleditsch, 2009).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence and the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Trento.