The Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction (S&R) manual presents the first strategic “doctrine” ever produced for civilians engaged in peacebuilding missions. It is a practical roadmap for helping countries transition from violent conflict to peace.

For decades, militaries have been equipped with doctrine that guides their decisions and actions. Civilian actors, however, still operate today without any unifying framework or shared set of principles to guide their actions in these complex environments. As global demand for these missions continues to rise, this gap will only impede cooperation and cohesion that is needed across the peacebuilding community to ensure success of any S&R mission.

The Guiding Principles seeks to fill this gap. Developed by the United States Institute of Peace and the U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, the manual offers two important contributions: 1) a comprehensive set of shared principles and 2) a shared strategic framework. The “Strategic Framework for Stabilization and Reconstruction” (PDF/772 KB) is the cornerstone of the manual and is based on a validated construct of common End States, Cross-Cutting Principles, Necessary Conditions and Major Approaches.

Both the principles and strategic framework are built on the wealth of lessons that have emerged from across the peacebuilding community in past S&R missions. 

Latest Publications

Keith Mines on the Collapse of Haiti’s Governance

Keith Mines on the Collapse of Haiti’s Governance

Monday, March 18, 2024

By: Keith Mines

With the governing structure now collapsing, Haitian gangs “have the country in a stranglehold,” says USIP’s Keith Mines, and that the best path to re-establish stability is “to form a new transitional government that would be more inclusive, that would have better connections to the Haitian people.”

Type: Podcast

Global Policy

Building Trust through Health Cooperation with North Korea

Building Trust through Health Cooperation with North Korea

Monday, March 18, 2024

By: Kee B. Park

The United States needs to address the existing trust deficit with North Korea if it wants to coexist peacefully with that country. Trust building through health cooperation may be the least contentious way politically and the most likely to succeed. However, engagement on health and humanitarian assistance with North Korea, like security negotiations, has been undermined by geopolitics.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

War and the Church in Ukraine

War and the Church in Ukraine

Thursday, March 14, 2024

By: Peter Mandaville, Ph.D.

Vladimir Putin’s war to reverse Ukraine’s independence includes religion. For centuries, the Russian Orthodox Church bolstered Moscow’s rule by wielding ecclesiastical authority over Ukrainian churches. Since early 2019, Ukraine has had a self-governing Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Russia’s invasion has sharpened tensions between it and the rival branch historically linked to Moscow. Any conciliation between them could shrink areas for conflict — and the Kremlin’s ability to stir chaos — in a postwar Ukraine. It would bolster Ukraine’s future stability and reinforce a decline in Russia’s historically massive influence across the Orthodox Christian world. But can Ukrainians make that happen?

Type: Analysis

Religion

Lauren Baillie on the ICC’s Latest Warrants for Russian War Crimes

Lauren Baillie on the ICC’s Latest Warrants for Russian War Crimes

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

By: Lauren Baillie

For the first time, the International Criminal Court has charged high-level Russian commanders with crimes against humanity — showing that Russia’s assault on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine is “not sporadic, it’s systematic, it’s purposeful, it’s part of a policy,” says USIP’s Lauren Baillie.

Type: Podcast

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