Stabilization Operations and their Relationship to Liberal Peacebuilding Missions

This chapter begins with a discus- sion of the different usages of the term by the United States (US), the United Kingdom, and France which, more than any other state, have contributed to “upload” their understanding of stabilization 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, counterin- surgency, 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 emerg- ing in the process of implementation of stabiliza- tion’s activities. As a whole, stabilization reflects the disappointment with earlier large-scale, trans- formative peacebuilding interventions and the related downgrading among the list of interna- tional priorities of normative issues such as the promotion of democracy and the protection of human rights.