Freeze–Vote–Rebuild is designed to function under conditions of high distrust, but it still has significant failure modes. This section catalogs risks, common critiques, and mitigations, providing a structure for making the framework more resilient.
Objectives
Identify Failure Modes Early: Detect and define risks before they become active crises.
Explicit Risk Ownership: Clarify which actors (domestic or international) are responsible for specific mitigations.
Design Integration: Tie mitigations directly to verification gates, incentives, and operational rules.
Credible Responses: Provide objective, design-based replies to common political and ethical critiques.
How Risks are Handled in This Framework
This section is organized into four key pillars:
Failure Modes: A deep dive into what can go wrong (e.g., monitor obstruction, voter coercion) and why.
Risk Register: A structured table containing likelihood, impact, specific mitigations, and assigned owners.
Common Critiques & Responses: A "steelman" approach to objections (e.g., "This rewards the aggressor") paired with operational replies.
Ethical Considerations: Managing moral and political risks, such as the tension between stability and justice.
Linking Risk to Execution
Risk handling is not a separate exercise; it is hard-wired into the following systems:
