About Us.
Strategic Stabilization Advisors (SSA) is a leading data-driven advisory that provides critical guidance to organizations operating in hard-to-reach and challenging operational environments affected by instability and conflict. SSA draws from our team’s decades of collective experience in leading P/CVE, counterterrorism and stabilization initiatives. Drawing on lessons learned, we approach conflict dynamics differently.
Our Story
SSA fills a critical gap experienced by our team while working in the field. SSA’s director Aneliese Bernard had first-hand experience of the organizational barriers to effective cooperation with local partners faced with managing a stabilization and counterinsurgency response across the Lake Chad Basin and Sahel. After leaving government, Aneliese set up SSA in 2021 in an effort to bridge the gap - both in terms of advisory and practice - that exists between increasing capacity for local security institutions and community engagement. SSA’s focus since has been on equipping partners with the best information possible, to inform their work on the ground, and the niche focus of building better military capabilities through civilian engagement.
Our Mission
SSA’s mission is to provide clients with informed strategies - through research and programmatic interventions - based on 'groundtruth' that is driven by rigorous data analysis and in-depth research and coupled with thematic and regional expertise.
Our approach emphasizes culturally sensitive and context-appropriate solutions, offering services such as research and analysis, program development and implementation, and policy development and strategic advice. Our team comprises former government officials, military leaders, and practitioners with extensive experience in regions including the Middle East, West and Central Africa, and the Caucasus.
We have teams in the U.S., the Netherlands, France and Benin, with a network of vetted and trained consultants that we have worked with for years positioned across West and Central Africa and the southern Caucasus. We collaborate closely with local partners who possess deep contextual knowledge, enabling them to address pressing challenges in conflict-affected environments effectively.
