Menu

United States Institute of Peace

Home ▶ About ▶ Centers

Asia Center

Print the Page

The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) has had long-standing engagement in South and Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific. USIP’s Asia Center, established in 2015, currently maintains country offices in Afghanistan, Burma and Pakistan, where staff work with local and international partners to encourage greater inclusivity, promote political and social participation, advance justice, support mechanisms for conflict resolution and reconciliation, counter violent extremism, and pilot, test, and learn from innovative approaches to address violent conflict. The Washington, D.C.-based China program is focused on China’s impact on peace and conflict dynamics globally, with a particular interest in the countries and conflict zones where USIP works. Through research, a range of publications, public and private events, and briefings to national and international policy makers, the Asia Center deepens understanding of peace and conflict dynamics and helps inform policies and strategies on how best to manage violent conflict.

Regional and Non-Priority Country Initiatives

The Asia Center also applies its research, analysis, and convening strengths toward better understanding of regional, bilateral, or cross-border drivers of conflict relevant to its four priority country programs. The Center has previously supported research and dialogue on various aspects of the India-Pakistan and Afghanistan-Pakistan relationships, the Korean peninsula, regional economic initiatives, issues related to natural resources, and common trends in extremism in Southeast Asia, among others.

Where needs, opportunities and resources permit, the Asia Center also seeks to help prevent, mitigate or resolve violent conflict through on-ground initiatives beyond the Center’s priority programs. For example, the Center currently has active projects in Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan. 

Current Projects

Vietnam Wartime Accounting Initiative

Vietnam Wartime Accounting Initiative

The Vietnam Wartime Accounting Initiative (VWAI) focuses on accounting for and recovering the remains of Vietnamese personnel killed or missing from the Vietnam War. The initiative is part of a broader effort by the U.S. Department of Defense, working in collaboration with Vietnamese authorities, to provide closure to families of the missing and to promote reconciliation between the two countries. The U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), as part of its Vietnam War Legacies and Reconciliation Initiative, launched in 2021, is dedicated to addressing these enduring impacts by fostering collaboration between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments on public communications, policy dialogue, and people-to-people exchange.

Senior Study Group on Counterterrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Senior Study Group on Counterterrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan

In 2022, the U.S. Institute of Peace convened a senior study group to examine the evolving threat landscape and counterterrorism challenges in South Asia. The bipartisan study group brought together experts of counterterrorism strategy, diplomacy, intelligence and South Asia to assess terrorism risks from Afghanistan and Pakistan and put forth policy options for future counterterrorism efforts in the region.

Fragility & Resilience;  Violent Extremism

Transnational Organized Crime in Southeast Asia

Transnational Organized Crime in Southeast Asia

Over the past decade, Southeast Asia has become a major breeding ground for transnational criminal networks emanating from China. USIP assembled a senior study group to assess one of the most pernicious aspects of such criminality: rapidly spreading, industrial-scale scam compounds that rely on forced labor lured from around the world. The senior study group convened four meetings to share research and information on the trends, dimensions and character of the criminal networks operating the scam compounds and developed recommendations for countering their malign effects.

Democracy & Governance;  Economics;  Global Policy;  Human Rights

Tracking China’s Global Security Initiative

Tracking China’s Global Security Initiative

China’s ongoing push to change the international security order entered a new phase with the launch of the Global Security Initiative (GSI) in April 2022. The GSI promotes a set of distinct security concepts and principles — many of which reflect Beijing’s longstanding international normative preferences, such an emphasis on territorial sovereignty and noninterference. USIP is tracking how the GSI is being operationalized by China, with an initial focus on essay series examining China’s GSI activities in ASEAN and Central Asia.

Conflict Analysis & Prevention;  Justice, Security & Rule of Law;  Global Policy

View All

Featured Publications

The Latest on Southeast Asia’s Transnational Cybercrime Crisis

The Latest on Southeast Asia’s Transnational Cybercrime Crisis

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

By: Jason Tower;  Jacob Sims;  Priscilla A. Clapp

Increasing scrutiny and exposure of global internet scams based in Southeast Asia has sparked fast-moving developments to quash the schemes and countermoves by the organized gangs behind them. Recent months have seen crackdowns, arrests and internet cutoffs by law enforcement agencies and regional governments. Meanwhile, Cambodia and Myanmar continue to be the most egregious havens for criminal operations, while Laos seems to be demonstrating early signs of concern for the impact of organized crime on its sovereignty.

Type: Analysis

Economics;  Global Policy;  Human Rights

Kiribati’s President Wins Reelection: What Does it Mean for the U.S. and China?

Kiribati’s President Wins Reelection: What Does it Mean for the U.S. and China?

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

By: Camilla Pohle

Kiribati President Taneti Maamau, reelected last week, will probably use his third term to continue strengthening ties with China. U.S. relations with Kiribati, however, remain less well established. Since last year, the number of U.S. embassies in the Pacific Islands has leapt from six to nine, reflecting the region’s higher priority to the United States as its concerns have grown about China’s engagement. But efforts to build a U.S. embassy in Kiribati — the closest country to Hawai‘i — have stalled because of Maamau’s government.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

View All