The Cross-Cutting Principles

Abstract

The Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction have served as a handbook for stabilizers since 2009 and provide a series of end state that must be addressed simultaneously to ensure sustainable peace after conflict. The “Cross-Cutting Principles” presented here are overarching and extend into each of the end states, sometimes considered the brain of stabilization, as they are indispensable and intractable from the other parts of the stabilization framework. These efforts are critical to influencing the leaders and the population itself to be empowered by stabilization and to take ownership of achieving the end states, so that peace is grafted indelibly into the indigenous social structure. These principles enable a whole-of-society effort toward transforming conflict into a positive force for growth, cohesion, and unity.