The key to successful stability operations is swift attention to a country's economic needs.
Since the 1800s, stability operations have played a significant role in U.S. foreign policy. Section IV of the 2006 National Security Strategy (NSS) reiterates the importance of such operations in protecting our global interests. Within a stability operation, economic actions can have an impact that is equal to, or greater than that of military actions. If properly applied, economic planning and execution can have a strong positive impact on the success of the operation. If ignored, the consequences can be dire. Perhaps one of the most dramatic examples of a failure, resulting from not having such an institutional structure and doctrine in place, was that of post-World War I Germany. The renowned economist J. M. Keynes served as the representative of the British Treasury to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Unfortunately, his predictions of disaster were prophetic.
