| | Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization "We must also improve the responsiveness of our government to help nations emerging from tyranny and war...and that means our government must be able to move quickly to provide needed assistance." [full text]
-- President Bush
Failing and post-conflict states pose one of the greatest national and international security challenges of our day, threatening vulnerable populations, their neighbors, our allies, and ourselves. On August 5, 2004, Secretary Powell announced the creation of the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS) to enhance our nation's institutional capacity to respond to crises involving failing, failed, and post-conflict states and complex emergencies. Ambassador Carlos Pascual serves as the Coordinator.
The Core Mission of S/CRS is to lead, coordinate and institutionalize U.S. Government civilian capacity to prevent or prepare for post-conflict situations, and to help stabilize and reconstruct societies in transition from conflict or civil strife, so they can reach a sustainable path toward peace, democracy and a market economy. For more information, please refer to the page About S/CRS.
Essential Tasks Matrix
The Post-Conflict Reconstruction Essential Tasks Matrix is an important tool describing the full spectrum of tasks that might need to be performed by the international community in a post-conflict environment. This analytical framework was first developed and presented by CSIS and AUSA in the study Winning the Peace. [click here] | | | Highlights | White House Announces Presidential Directive (Dec. 14): President Bush issued a new Directive to empower the Secretary of State to improve coordination, planning, and implementation for reconstruction and stabilization assistance for countries and regions falling into or emerging from conflict. The Secretary of State will be supported by a Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization. signing of Presidental Directive | fact sheet |
The National Security Strategy of the United States: "America is now threatened less by conquering states than we are by failing ones." http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nssall.html
Secretary Rice's op-ed in the Washington Post (Dec. 11): "[We] have seen that these assumptions no longer hold, and as a result the greatest threats to our security are defined more by the dynamics within weak and failing states than by the borders between strong and aggressive ones. The phenomenon of weak and failing states is not new, but the danger they now pose is unparalleled." full text
Amb. Pascual speaks at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (Oct. 26):
"Many societies transitioning from conflict have an authoritarian past, where order was defined from the top, and imposed. Now we are asking people to think about living in a society based on openness, freedom and competition...That is not just a change in a set of laws. It is a fundamental change to the way that they approach life. And it doesn't happen overnight." [More]
Media Note: Building Civilian Conflict-Response Capabilities
S/CRS is working to improve the central management of the United States' conflict response; field-based coordination and rapid response capabilities; and provision of skills and resources for implementation.
Fact Sheet on the Office of the Coordinator
An overview of the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization is provided in this fact sheet available in PDF or HTML format. |
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