State Department establishes new Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations

On Monday, November 21, the U.S. Department of State established a new Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO) to focus on conflict prevention, crisis response, and stabilization activities.

CSO will seek to:

• Get ahead of change.  While the scale and types of future crises cannot be predicted, the complex nature and cascading effects of 21st century challenges require a future-oriented State Department.  CSO will support the State Department’s ability to anticipate major security challenges by providing timely, operational solutions.
• Drive an integrated response.  CSO will build integrated approaches to conflict prevention and stabilization by linking analysis, planning resources, operational solutions, and active learning and training.  The bureau will call on the expertise in the Civilian Response Corps to rapidly deploy to areas of instability to bring the right mix of expertise to each unique situation.
• Leverage partnerships.  CSO will work with a range of non-governmental and international partners to prevent conflict, address sources of violence, build on existing resiliencies, and promote burden-sharing.  In particular, CSO will encourage greater involvement of local civil society – including women, youth, and the media – to prevent and respond to conflict.

The new bureau subsumes the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization and builds upon the expertise of the Civilian Response Corps.

For more information about the CSO, please follow the link below.
Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, U.S. Department of State