Quote Originally Posted by Jedburgh View Post
None of this is new at all, and Stability Operations as a doctrinal term predates OOTW. Rather, it is an updating and fleshing out of old, existing doctrine. For a few on this board, I would hazard a guess that they're experiencing a bit of déjà vu with all this updating/republishing of old doctrine that had been virtually ignored for years.

See FM 31-23 Stability Operations, 8 Dec 67 (Updated and reissued 2 Oct 72 - with an added chapter on training requirements for advisors, along with a few other bits). Take a look at FM 31-73 Advisor Handbook for Stability Operations, 18 Oct 67.

The new FM provides the definition of Stability Operations from JP 3-0 Joint Operations, 17 Sep 06 (Change 1, 13 Feb 08)
Jedburg you are right. When I was doing my thesis on Special Forces missions in 1994 the next mission after UW and COIN for SF was stability operations (and it applied to the whole Army as well). And so you prove the point I should have tried to make. Some of the best doctrine that we need for dealing with the uncertain environments of the future exist in our historical doctrine. We keep trying to reinvent the wheel with new terms and concepts but there are tried an true terms and doctrine that just might need some minor adjustments to remain useful today and tomorrow.

Dave