1-34. During stabilization, engagement and intervention activities are better defined in terms of the progress toward stabilizing operational environments. The fragile states framework illustrates conditions that characterize an operational environment during such operations, and it defines the environment according to two quantifiable, complementary scales: decreasing violence and increasing normalization of the state. These scales are the fundamental measures of success in conflict transformation. These measures relate directly to the Army’s strategic role of consolidation of gains: area security (to reduce violence) and stability operations (to increase the stability of the state). Although fragile states do not recover from conflict or disaster according to a smooth, graduated scale, this framework provides a means with which to gauge conditions of an operational environment, formulate an engagement method, and measure progress toward success.