Publication

This paper argues that the emergence of stabilization as a concept out of peace building, state-building and counter-insurgency theories has carried with it some of the key weaknesses of international intervention, in particular the idea that imposing Western liberal systems on 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, the paper argues that stabilization activities do not engage fully with the underlying premise that stabilization must support and engender local political legitimacy, in part because of the conceptual baggage that stabilization has adopted from other areas.