CIAO DATE: 02/2012
November 2011
Danish Institute for International Studies
The emergence of stabilisation from peacebuilding, statebuilding and counter-insurgency theories has carried with it some of the key weaknesses of international intervention, in particular the fact that imposing western liberal systems in non-Western societies will contribute towards stability. With reference to two case studies, the Wheat Seed project in Afghanistan and a gas cylinder distribution project in Iraq, this paper argues that stabilisation activities do not engage fully with the underlying premise that stabilisation must support and engender local political legitimacy, in part because of the conceptual baggage that stabilisation has taken from other areas. The paper concludes by arguing that greater use should be made of the knowledge and histories of non-western state formation, characterized as being non-Weberian in a counter-balance to the overuse by interveners of the desire to support rational Weberian state structures in other countries. The paper is authored by Christian Dennys and Ann M. Fitz-Gerald, both of whom are based at the Centre for Security Management (CSSM) at Cranfield University. The paper was initially presented at the 1-3 November 2010 conference on Access to Justice and Security. Non-State Actors and Local Dynamics of Ordering, organized by DIIS researchers Helene Maria Kyed and Peter Albrecht.
Resource link: Intervention hangovers in stabilisation operations: Case studies from Afghanistan and Iraq [PDF] - 253K