For more than two decades, addressing fragility has been an evolving bipartisan priority for U.S. policymakers. Yet growing understanding and consensus about the problem has failed to generate the strategic, unified, and long-term policies required to achieve solutions.

State fragility will remain a central feature of the international landscape for the foreseeable future. The United States’ response, however, can and must evolve.

As the military campaign against the Islamic State stalls, it is time to turn to a civilian solution.