Legitimacy and Penetration in Stability Operations

State formation aims to achieve a legitimate monopoly on the use of violence and a legitimate government as perceived by its population. Governments have two principle mechanisms, force and consent, to create the conditions within which it can battle for legitimacy. Penetration is an epiphenomenon of legitimacy; it is a measure of a government's ability to implement its policies within a specific area. Stability operations provide a mechanism by which the international community endeavors to reestablish order within a dysfunctional state. Stability operations are synonymous to state formation as they seek to assist with the establishment of legitimate government. A stabilization force seeks to simultaneously deliver; security (force), governance and development (consent) down to the local level to augment a government's penetration and enhance its battle for legitimacy. Civilian development agencies have an ambitious agenda to provide more than a legitimate government and a monopoly on violence. They lack the capacity to conduct governance and development at the local level. This lack of capacity debilitates the consent mechanism of state formation and inhibits the simultaneous application of governance, development and security. Penetration is consequently limited to the national, district and provincial levels. Subversive and insurgent organizations are able to operate at the local level exploiting this 'capacity gap' ;. Thus the conditions are set for perpetual failure.