Stability Operations and State-Building: Continuities and Contingencies - Colloquium Report

State-building is nothing new for the U.S. military. The current age of state-building may be traced back at least to U.S. involvement in the various Balkan conflicts. But with the advent of the Global War on Terror and the subsequent interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. military, especially the Army and the Marines Corps, has been faced with an unprecedented challenge to reestablish entire countries and rebuild their institutions. It is no secret that our forces have suffered through a significant learning process to achieve the success and continued movement towards functioning states which currently marks our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. With the publication of Department of Defense (DOD) Directive 3000.05, Military Support for Stability, Security, Transition, and Reconstruction (SSTR) Operations, in November 2005, the Defense establishment addressed this area of state-building and stability operations.