Abstract
Since the early 2010s, the popularity of the term “stabilization” has grown exponentially within the United Nations (UN). Yet, despite being a widely used term, stabilization has not been defined. This chapter begins with a discussion of the different usages of stabilization by the United States, United Kingdom, and France which, more than any other state, have contributed to “upload” their understanding of the term in UN Security Council resolutions. Second, the chapter examines conceptual aspects. Stabilization is often associated to, or used as a synonymous of, other terms like peacekeeping, peace enforcement, counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and peacebuilding. Indeed, stabilization involves all of these aspects but does not coincide with any of them. Finally, key empirical examples of UN-led stabilization operations are briefly reviewed. They reveal the importance of a “robust posture” in stabilization operations, as well as of a number of contradictions and antinomies emerging in the process of implementation of stabilization’s activities. As a whole, stabilization reflects the disappointment with earlier large-scale, transformative peacebuilding interventions and the related downgrading among the list of international priorities of normative issues such as the promotion of democracy and the protection of human rights.
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Belloni, R. (2020). Stabilization Operations and Their Relationship to Liberal Peacebuilding Missions. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_10-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_10-1
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