Transitional Public Security: Establishing Security in the “Golden Hour”

FOREWORD
Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI) was created to ensure that the Army did not lose the knowledge required to conduct peacekeeping and stabilization and to anticipate what might be on the horizon. From Mass Atrocity Response Operations to Women, Peace and Security and much in between (transitions, stability policing, transitional public security, competition, etc.) PKOSI has been a thought leader. As one young PKSOI intern, now public servant opined, PKSOI is not a “think tank” but a “do tank.” Transitional Public Security: Establishing Security in the “Golden Hour” is another example of “doing.”

Transitional Public Security (TPS) is necessary to ensure that communities in post-conflict environments, or when law and order has broken down, are stabilized; thus, preventing bad actors from flourishing. It may well be that Department of Defense (DoD) is tasked to conduct TPS in accordance with DoD policy. A lot of work has been done to ensure that DoD is prepared to implement the policy and much more needs to be done. This is the story of where we are now and how we got there.

As Dr. Finkenbinder departs The Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, we believed it necessary to ensure that we record progress to date so the community of practice can determine where to go from here. After all, “public policy is whatever governments choose to do or not do.”1 If TPS is truly to become policy, it must become institutionalized.

Jay Liddick
Colonel, Civil Affairs
Director, Peacekeeping and
Stability Operations Institute
October 2021

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