Stability Operations

Effective stability operations requires more than an understanding of the operational environment; it requires seeing the environment from the population's perspective, understanding the population's grievances and how spoilers - key actors with means and motivation to cause instability - leverage them to gain support. The factors causing instability should be the focus of all civilian-military operations and resources. As General McCrystal, ISAF Commander in Afghanistan, said in his recent Commander's Counterinsurgency Guidance, "Understand the local grievances and problems that drive instability and take action to redress them..." The goal must be to mitigate drivers of instability and thereby reduce the reason spoilers have traction in the area.

Traditional development using multi-sector programming in health, education, infrastructure, economic livelihoods, and governance is appropriate in stable environments. However, in unstable environments the goal for civilian and military programming must be to identify, create, implement, and measure the effectiveness of stability activities that narrowly focus on the primary causes on instability. This requires moving away from "needs" or "rights" based development approaches. Instead, practitioners must analyze the environment to understand two factors. First, what service or value do the spoilers provide? Taking advantage of corruption or a lack of government services, spoilers often provide fundamental human needs like basic security, protection, or justice. Second, what are the population's grievances and how do spoilers take advantage of them to gain support or foment violence? Not all grievances are sources of instability and this nuance is critical for effective and targeted programming.

Development Transformations (DT) has experienced stability practitioners who offer training and technical assistance to all entities engaged in stabilization environments. DT's training includes modules on counterinsurgency, stability operations, development vs. stabilization programming, and tools necessary for effective stability operations. DT utilizes real-world simulations, examples of best practices, and role players during simulated community engagements when conducting training. This allows practitioners to advance beyond classroom instruction and gain real skills applicable in the field.