Disasters special issue, vol. 34, supplement 3, October 2010

This special issue of Disasters explores the  increased interest and engagement by donor and national governments in ‘stabilising’ contexts affected by armed conflict and complex emergencies, and considers its implications for international humanitarian action. Stabilisation is broadly understood as those efforts that seek, through a range of military, humanitarian, political and economic instruments, to forge, secure or support a particular political order that is deemed to protect or enhance national or international stability. The diversity, evolution and wide geographical and historical scope of these agendas is captured in case studies on Afghanistan, Colombia, Haiti, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste, with an additional contribution analysing the historical antecedents of stabilisation, and an overarching editorial that captures key trends and issues affecting humanitarian action in this current era of stabilisation.

To launch the special issue and stimulate debate on the subject, the Overseas Development Institute is holding a meeting series in London. The first event will take place on 22 October, and will bring together contributors from the special issue to present the key findings of the articles and discuss the discourses, policies and practices associated with stabilisation and their implications for international humanitarian action. To find out more about the event and to register to attend in person or to watch the event live online, please visit our events page. Attendees and online participants will have the opportunity to purchase printed copies at a heavily reduced rate, and to register for a free trial to Disasters.

Table of contents

• States of fragility: stabilisation and its implications for humanitarian action
  Sarah Collinson, Samir Elhawary and Robert Muggah  **FREE ACCESS**

• ‘A tradition of forgetting’: stabilisation and humanitarian action in historical perspective
  Sultan Barakat, Seán Deely and Steven A. Zyck 

• Stabilisation and humanitarian access in a collapsed state: the Somali case
  Ken Menkhaus **FREE ACCESS**

• Stabilising a victor’s peace? Humanitarian action and reconstruction in eastern Sri Lanka
  Jonathan Goodhand

• The United Kingdom’s stabilisation model and Afghanistan: the impact on humanitarian actors
  Stuart Gordon

• Security for whom? Stabilisation and civilian protection in Colombia
  Samir Elhawary

• Aid and stability in Pakistan: lessons from the 2005 earthquake response
  Andrew Wilder

• Addressing symptoms but not causes: stabilisation and humanitarian action in Timor-Leste
  Elisabeth Lothe and Gordon Peake

• The effects of stabilisation on humanitarian action in Haiti
  Robert Muggah