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ABSTRACT
Stabilization is a contestable concept of intervention in violent conflicts. Often, it is either uncritically supported or rejected. In this article, we criticize current conceptualisations and practices of stabilization and newly introduce a dynamic approach for stabilization that yields a transformative potential. By distinguishing static vs. dynamic approaches to stabilization, we address the widespread dilemma that so-called stabilization measures seem unable to avoid instability and protracted violence in the long-term. Our analysis of the three policy fields peacekeeping, train & equip programmes and migration management in Mali reveals the dominance of static elements in stabilization practice. Instead, our article proposes to see a transformative variant of stabilization measures that enhances long-term security and development. We argue that there are two dynamic approaches of stabilization that policy-makers and practitioners can apply in (post-)conflict societies: state-centred liberal peacebuilding that takes its normative core seriously, and non-state centric peacebuilding that acknowledges alternative lived orders.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributors
Katja Mielke, Senior Researcher at BICC, holds a PhD in Development Studies from Bonn University. Her research focuses on political dynamics between state and societal actors in non-OECD settings and prospects of order(ing) beyond the state. Primarily she is interested in questions of legitimacy and representation in rural and urban contexts, local politics, politics as negotiation, and conflict dynamics related to (im)mobility and translocal exchanges.
Max Mutschler is Senior Researcher at the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC). He holds a PhD from the University of Tübingen. Besides general questions of arms control theory and practice, his research interest are the international arms trade and evolving practices of warfare, with a focus on the role of the proliferation of modern military technology.
Esther Meininghaus is a senior researcher at BICC. As a political anthropologist, her research focuses on peace processes, negotiations of power under autocracy (Syria), and non-state political orders. Educated in Middle Eastern Studies at the Universities of Bonn (MA, 2007) and Manchester (PhD, 2013), she has taught at both universities on the political anthropology of the Middle East, humanitarianism and development since 2008.
Notes
1 Maier, In Search of Stability, 270.
2 Attree and Keen, “Dilemmas.”
3 Bamyeh, Order as Anarchy; Sigrist, Regulierte Anarchie.
4 Richmond, “Peace and the Formation of Political Order.”
5 Rotmann and Steinacker, “Stabilization.”
6 UK Stabilisation Unit, “The UK Government’s Approach,” 1.
7 Stabilisation Unit, “The UK Government’s Approach”; UK Stabilisation Unit, “The UK Government’s Approach”; Federal Government of Germany, “Guidelines”; US DoS, USAID, “Stabilisation Assistance Review.”
8 USIP, “Guiding Principles”; US Department of State/USAID, “Leading through Civilian Power.”
9 US DoS, USAID, “Stabilisation Assistance Review,” 1.
10 UK Stabilisation Unit, “The UK Government’s Approach,” 1.
11 Stabilisation Unit, “The UK Government’s Approach,” 16.
12 Rotmann, “Toward a Realistic and Responsible Idea of Stabilisation”; Coning, “Is Stabilisation the New Normal?”; Zyck and Muggah, “Preparing Stabilisation.”
13 Dennys, “For Stabilization”; Zyck and Muggah, “Preparing Stabilisation.”
14 Carter, “War, Peace and Stabilisation.”
15 Knight, “Stabilisation Paradigm.”
16 Mac Ginty, “Indigenous Peace-Making”; Campbell, Chandler, and Sabaratnam, A Liberal Peace?; Roberts, Liberal Peacebuilding.
17 Selby, “Liberal Peace-Building.” However, Joshi et al. find that liberal peacebuilding is the dominant form of peace-support intervention. Joshi, Lee, and Mac Ginty, “Liberal Peace.”
18 Mac Ginty, “Against Stabilization.”
19 Duffield, “Reprisable Durable Order”; Duffield, “Risk-Management.”
20 Karlsrud, “Liberal Peacebuilding.”
21 Chandler, International Statebuilding.
22 Gallie, “Essentially Contested Concepts”; Clarke, “Eccentrically Contested Concepts.”
23 Clarke, “Eccentrically Contested Concepts.”
24 De Spiegeleire et al., “Future Stabilization,” 5.
25 Online Etymology Dictionary, “Stability.”
26 Cambridge Dictionary, “Stability.”
27 De Spiegeleire et al., “Future Stabilization,” 6.
28 Maier, In Search of Stability, 262. We owe this hint to the work of Maier to Carter, “War, Peace and Stabilisation,” 7.
29 Wrong, Power, 2, 20.
30 Anter, Die Macht Der Ordnung, 50.
31 Mielke, Schetter, and Wilde, “Dimensions of Social Order,” 5.
32 Sigrist, Regulierte Anarchie.
33 Arjona, “Rebelocracy.”
34 SIGAR, “Stabilisation,” 38.
35 Weber, Wirtschaft Und Gesellschaft; Almond, “Return to the State”; Skocpol, “State.”
36 Selby, “Liberal Peace-Building.”
37 Maier, In Search of Stability, 263f.
38 Duhart, “Talking with Terrorists”; Federer, “We Do Negotiate with Terrorists.”
39 Richmond, “Peace and the Formation of Political Order,” 3.
40 Chauzal and Damme, “The Roots of Mali’s Conflict.”
41 UNSC, “Report of the Secretary-General.”
42 UNSC S/RES/2100, “Resolution 2100.”
43 Ibid., 7.
44 UNSC S/RES/2359, “Resolution 2359.”
45 UNSC S/RES/2423, “Resolution 2423.”
46 For how the notion stabilization entered the discourse in UN peacekeeping and criticism of robust mandates, see Coning, “Is Stabilisation the New Normal?”; Karlsrud, “Liberal Peacebuilding”; UN HIPPO, “Uniting Our Strength.”
47 Coning, “Is Stabilisation the New Normal?”
48 UNSC S/RES/2480, “Resolution 2480,” 6.
49 Ibid., 8.
50 Di Razza, “Protecting Civilians,” 31.
51 UNSC S/2018/541*, “Situation in Mali,” 11f.
52 Wiedemann, “Viel Militär, Weniger Sicherheit,” 3.
53 Ursu, “Under the Gun,” 36.
54 Ibid., 55.
55 Di Razza, “Protecting Civilians,” 8.
56 Ibid.; Wiedemann, “Viel Militär, Weniger Sicherheit,” 19f.
57 Tull, “Mali,” 4.
58 Berks, “Future Generation DDR,” 68.
59 Wulf, “Security Sector Reform”; OECD DAC, “OECD DAC Handbook.”
60 Sedra, “The Future of Security Sector Reform.”
61 DCAF, “Mali SSR.”
62 Shurkin et al., Building Armies, 153.
63 Ibid., 154.
64 Tull, “Mali,” 3.
65 Caparini, “DDR”; DCAF, “Mali SSR.”
66 Caparini, “DDR”; Tull, “Mali.”
67 Bagayoko “Security Sector Reform.”
68 DCAF, “Mali SSR.”
69 EUTM Mali, “European Training Mission Mali.”
70 Shurkin et al., Building Armies, 179.
71 defenceweb, “Bastion Armoured Vehicles.”
72 Human Rights Watch, “Mali.”
73 European Commission, “EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa”; Deutscher Bundestag, “Antwort Der Bundesregierung Auf Die Kleine Anfrage Der Abgeordneten Uwe Kekeritz, Claudia Roth (Augsburg), Ottmar von Holtz, Weiterer Abgeordneter Und Der Fraktion BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN – Drucksache 19/1372, p.22.”
74 GTAI, “Special Measure.”
75 IOM, “Mediterranean Migrant Arrivals.”
76 Toaldo and Barana, “EU’s Migration Policy,” 2016.
77 Castillejo, EU Migration Partnership.
78 Collett and Ahad, EU Migration Partnerships, 2017.
79 Toaldo and Barana, “EU’s Migration Policy,” 2016.
80 Alliance Sahel, “The Projects - Alliance Sahel”; Sahel Alliance, “Border Management for Stability and Human Security.”
81 De Bruijn and Van Dijk, “Population Mobility.”
82 IOM, “Mali Migration Crisis.”
83 Castillejo, EU Migration Partnership, 34; IOM, “Migration,” 48.
84 Castillejo, EU Migration Partnership.
85 Ibid.
86 Benjaminsen and Ba, “Pastoralists.”
87 IOM, “Mediterranean Migrant Arrivals.”
88 UNHCR, “Italy Sea Arrivals”; UNHCR, “Sea Arrivals”; UNHCR, “Spain Sea and Land Arrivals.”
89 Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, “Mali Migration Profile.”
90 Molenaar and Van Damme, “Irregular Migration.”
91 UNESCO, “Manden Charter, proclaimed in Kurukan Fuga.”