Developing Stability

From drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America, to violent extremism in the Horn of Africa, to insurgents in Colombia, to all three in Afghanistan and Pakistan, significant weaknesses in governance and economic development underlie many of the greatest security threats currently facing the United States. A solely military solution to these issues will not achieve long-term success without efforts to improve the underlying conditions that foster the insecurity in the first place. More specifically, development and reconstruction efforts need to bolster the legitimacy, effectiveness, and reach of the indigenous government, as well as address the population's grievances. Although the international community has widely accepted the importance of addressing the root causes of instability, significant questions remain over whether — and how — actors can feasibly implement these critical activities in insecure environments. Using a comparative case study approach, this dissertation tests the hypothesis that development and reconstruction actors can feasibly implement sound development and reconstruction across a relatively wide spectrum of conflict, but varying levels and natures of violence can affect its delivery. The dissertation develops an analytic framework that defines seven principles of sound development and reconstruction and identifies three aspects of the conflict context — the background; the current social, economic and political factors; and the security environment — that affect these principles