Civilian Stabilization

In recent years, Germany has become one of the most important international actors in the field of civilian stabilization – and one of the largest donors. Civilian stabilization has the potential to become a central pillar of German foreign and security policy in regions affected by conflict. Because this goes hand in hand with Germany’s political aspiration to play an active role in circumstances of fragile statehood and government, it entails a variety of risks. For all relevant stakeholders to have the capacity to act successfully despite these risks, all of those involved must work together in a well-informed manner, taking an integrated approach.

The project “Civilian Stabilization and the Peace-Security Nexus” aimed to strengthen understanding for stabilization as a policy field and empower the various stakeholders to discuss related problems. In the process, it sought to enrich the public foreign policy debate over the long term. The project’s research was intended to review previous experiences with German stabilization practice to initiate or further develop points for interdepartmental and interministerial reflection and learning processes. Another goal was to make the topic of stabilization more politically appealing. In this way, the project aimed to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of German stabilization efforts as well as strengthen the cooperation of national actors in a sustainable way.

How the basis for peace and stability can be created in an increasingly unstable world and what stabilization policy means in concrete terms are questions that the German-language podcast “Stabil diskutiert – politische Stabilisierung und Friedensförderung” helped to answer. In four episodes, former DGAP research fellow Florence Schimmel talked to experts from politics, think tanks, academia, and civil society about the instruments that can be used for political stabilization, crisis prevention, and peacebuilding. The goal was to discuss how Germany can better contribute to preventing crises and creating stability in the foreign policy environment.

The topics of the four episodes are: 1) stabilization as a foreign policy instrument; 2) the return of statehood; 3) the promotion of democracy and the rule of law; and 4) security sector reform. A transcript of the interview with the English-speaking expert Lilian Dawha from Nigeria can be found in this PDF document.

The project was conducted by DGAP's Center for Security and Defense and funded by the Germany’s Federal Foreign Office.