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 Seal of the United States Department of State | |
| Bureau overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | November 22, 2011 |
| Headquarters | Washington, DC |
| Employees | 160 (FY 2018) |
| Annual budget | $12 million (FY 2018) |
| Bureau executives |
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| Parent department | U.S. Department of State |
| Website | Official website |
The Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO) is a bureau of the United States Department of State.
CSO’s mission is to anticipate, prevent, and respond to conflict that undermines U.S. national interests. The bureau implements this mission in two complementary ways: through data-driven analysis and forward deploying stabilization advisors to conflict zones. The objective is to inform and execute U.S. strategy, policy, and programs on conflict prevention and stabilization.
CSO’s expertise focuses on three key lines of effort: 1) political instability; 2) security sector stabilization; and 3) countering violent extremism (CVE). CSO collaborates with regional and functional bureaus, the Department of Defense, and USAID, and details stabilization advisors to posts and Geographic Combatant Commands (COCOMS) requiring specialized expertise.
CSO focuses on three lines of effort (LOE) reflecting different aspects of the conflict cycle, and with narrowed definitions, to deconflict with other agencies and bureaus. [1]
Strategic prevention includes deliberate efforts to reduce fragility, strengthen institutions, and increase cohesion in priority countries to disrupt likely pathways to violent conflict, instability, and/or political subversion. Bureau policy priorities are supporting the Global Fragility Act and early warning of atrocities, or EWA. Examples of how the bureau implements strategic prevention include data analytics, atrocity early warning, stabilization planning, and preventing violent acts. [2] Conflict resolution includes negotiation, mediation, and diplomatic efforts to respond to conflict. Regional bureaus often lead U.S. efforts for peace negotiations, but CSO provides technical support. The bureau provides the reach-back capability for best practices and comparative examples and has programs to support peace processes, ceasefires, and conduct table-top exercises. [3] Security sector stabilization is a true niche for CSO in the U.S. government, and includes long-term reform efforts. The State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) works only with official governments that have political will for security sector reform, and USAID generally cannot work with security actors, so the bureau was working in a stabilization setting prior to INL. [4]
Examples of the Bureau's work includes analyzing and mitigating non-state armed groups, reintegrating former fighters or war veterans, and getting combatants off the battlefield. CSO efforts enable the necessary, minimum security conditions to prepare for longer-term security sector reform. [5]
Another example includes disengaging and reintegrating former combatants, mapping non-state armed groups, and reintegrating other groups such as war veterans into society. For example, in Niger, CSO promoted defections of former fighters from Boko Haram and Islamic State-West Africa and their reintegration into society. The program helped remove former fighters from the battlefield and reduced the capacity of Boko Haram and ISIS-WA to threaten U.S. persons and interests. CSO reinforced this effort by deploying a Stabilization Advisor to the American Embassy in Niamey to assist the Government of Niger in establishing a legal framework and implementation plan for defectors.
The LOE were designed to add value and demonstrate how the bureau's efforts are separate but coordinated with other agencies and bureaus. [6]
The Department of State announced the creation of the bureau on November 22, 2011, replacing the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization. [7]
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the United States government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 billion, USAID is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world and accounts for more than half of all U.S. foreign assistance—the highest in the world in absolute dollar terms.
Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) is a designation for non-United States-based organizations deemed by the united States Secretary of State, in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (INA), to be involved in what US authorities define as terrorist activities. Most of the organizations on the list are Islamist extremist groups, nationalist/separatist groups, or Marxist militant groups.
Counterinsurgency is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionaries" and can be considered war by a state against a non-state adversary. Insurgency and counterinsurgency campaigns have been waged since ancient history. However, modern thinking on counterinsurgency was developed during decolonization.
The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) is an agency that reports to the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights within the Department of State. Under the umbrella of its general mission of developing policies and programs to combat international narcotics and crime, INL plays an important role in the training of partner nation security forces.
Disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR), or disarmament, demobilisation, repatriation, reintegration and resettlement (DDRRR) are strategies used as a component of peace processes, and is generally the strategy employed by all UN Peacekeeping Operations following civil wars.
Frederick "Rick" Barton is a United States diplomat, educator, and author. He served as the founding Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at the U.S. Department of State until September 2014. Currently a lecturer at Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs, he is also the co-director of the university's Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative (SINSI) with his wife, Kit Lunney.
The United States Africa Command is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense, headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. It is responsible for U.S. military operations, including fighting regional conflicts and maintaining military relations with 53 African nations. Its area of responsibility covers all of Africa except Egypt, which is within the area of responsibility of the United States Central Command. U.S. AFRICOM headquarters operating budget was $276 million in fiscal year 2012.
Operation Juniper Shield, formerly known as Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara (OEF-TS), is the military operation conducted by the United States and partner nations in the Saharan and Sahel regions of Africa, consisting of counterterrorism efforts and policing of arms and drug trafficking across central Africa. It is part of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). The other OEF mission in Africa is Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA).
Owoye Andrew AzaziGSS DSS MSS CMH was a Nigerian army general who served as National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, was Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of Nigeria, and Chief of Army Staff (COAS). Before his first service chief appointment (COAS), he was General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division, Kaduna State.
The International Network to Promote the Rule of Law (INPROL) is a global, online community of practice, comprising 3,000+ rule of law practitioners from 120 countries and 300 organizations. INPROL works to assist specialists in the rule of law to stabilize war-torn societies.
The Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) is part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) and was developed to provide fast, flexible, short-term assistance to take advantage of windows of opportunity to build democracy and peace. It seeks to lay the foundations for long-term development by promoting reconciliation, jump starting economies and helping stable democracy take hold.
The 2009 Boko Haram uprising was a conflict between Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group, and Nigerian security forces.
Boko Haram, officially known as Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād, is an Islamist militant organization based in northeastern Nigeria, which is also active in Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon, and Mali. Boko Haram was the world's deadliest terror group during part of the mid-2010s according to the Global Terrorism Index. In 2016, the group split, resulting in the emergence of a hostile faction known as the Islamic State's West Africa Province.
The Boko Haram insurgency began in July 2009, when the militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria. The conflict is taking place within the context of long-standing issues of religious violence between Nigeria's Muslim and Christian communities, and the insurgents' ultimate aim is to establish an Islamic state in the region.
Abu Mohammed Abubakar al-Sheikawi was a Kanuri terrorist who was the leader of Boko Haram, a Nigerian Islamist militant group from 2009 to 2021. He served as deputy leader to the group's founder, Mohammed Yusuf, until Yusuf's execution in 2009.
Kaj Larsen is an American journalist, correspondent, and producer who has worked for Vice News, CNN, NowThis News and Current TV. He worked for the Vanguard international news documentary investigative reporting show on Current TV beginning in 2005. He produced the documentary series LOCKUP Maricopa County and LOCKUP RAW for MSNBC from 2010 to 2011. In 2010, he became a producer and correspondent for CNN until he was laid off in 2012 after CNN abolished their investigative news departments. Following CNN he became a correspondent for VICE News and hosted the series VICE on HBO. In 2016, Larsen hosted “The Runner” original series with Executive producers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. He was the senior correspondent for NowThis News.
The Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) is a combined multinational formation, comprising units, mostly military, from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. It is headquartered in N'Djamena and is mandated to bring an end to the Boko Haram insurgency.
The Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP), officially Wilāyat Garb Ifrīqīyā, meaning "West African Province", is a militant group and administrative division of the Islamic State (IS), a Salafi jihadist militant group and unrecognised quasi-state. ISWAP is primarily active in the Chad Basin, and fights an extensive insurgency against the states of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Turkey. It is an offshoot of Boko Haram with which it has a violent rivalry; Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau killed himself in battle with ISWAP in 2021. Until March 2022, ISWAP acted as an umbrella organization for all IS factions in West Africa including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS), although the actual ties between ISWAP and IS-GS were limited.
The Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations is the head of the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations within the United States Department of State, supporting the department's conflict and crisis-response efforts. The assistant secretary reports to the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights.
In May 2021, the Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP) launched an invasion of the Sambisa Forest in Borno State, Nigeria, which was serving as the main base of Boko Haram, a rival jihadist rebel group. Following heavy fighting, ISWAP overran the Boko Haram troops, cornering their leader Abubakar Shekau. The two sides entered negotiations about Boko Haram's surrender during which Shekau committed suicide, possibly detonating himself with a suicide vest. Shekau's death was regarded as a major event by outside observers, as he had been one of the main driving forces in the Islamist insurgency in Nigeria and neighboring countries since 2009.
