by Major (GS) Teemu Nurmela
Finnish Army
Download the Entire Thesis: The Social Battlespace of Stabilization Operations
Traditional Finnish "blue helmet" missions have been undertaken in situations where the parties have already consented to building peace. After the so-call revolution of UN peacekeeping, this kind of consent has been hard to find. The Finnish military terminology has shifted accordingly from peacekeeping (PK) to peace support operations (PSO) and military crisis management (sotilaallinen krusinhallinta). The terms "stabilization operations" or "stability operations" are not used in official texts to describe a certain phase or type of operations. Yet under the UN Chapter VII mandate, such operations have been common since IFOR in 1995. Finland has chosen not to take part in actual warfighting, but rather to contribute follow-on forces to the land component. Operations such as IFOR, SFOR, KFOR and recently ISAF have profoundly changed our operational environment. No longer is there a strong emphasis on post-conflict normalization. A recognized need for earlier action mandates a change in our approach.
This thesis will show the complexity of the tactical level when undertaking stability operations. A military intervention is often a robust and violent event whose legal framework is based on the law of armed conflict. When the campaign finally reaches the point of normalization, the juridical base must shift its basis to the rule of law. Stabilization, which lies between the the two ends of the spectrum, does not neatly fall within one judicial model or the other. We may call this grey area between warfighting and peacekeeping peace support, nation building or counterinsurgency, but these terms will remain hollow. Such terms quickly lose their meaning especially for those deployed on the ground. Thus, the operational reality consists of concrete aspects such as the mandate, the mission, memorandums of understanding (MOU), the status of forces agreement (SOFA), and the rules of engagement (ROE). The tactical reality, however, incorporates varying levels of intensity and a multitude of actors and contexts. To visualize all this, the reader must have a working knowledge of how things really work during operations. Therefore, it is important to note that this paper is written for the experienced audience.
Download the Entire Thesis: The Social Battlespace of Stabilization Operations
Major Teemu Nurmela is a Finnish officer currently serving at the J5 Plans & Policy Division, Finnish Defence Command in Helsinki. After graduating from the Finnish Military Academy in 1996, he served in light infantry and field HUMINT assignments including tours in Kosovo and Bosnia. He was certified as a general staff officer in 2009 after studying at the Finnish National Defence University and at the French Joint Staff College (CID).