Featured Event
Events
As a national, nonpartisan, independent Institute, the U.S. Institute of Peace draws on our exceptional convening power to create opportunities for diverse audiences to exchange knowledge, experiences, and ideas necessary for creative solutions to difficult challenges. We serve as an important, neutral platform for bringing together government and nongovernment, diplomacy, security, and development actors, and participants across political views. The Institute’s events help shape public policy and priorities to advance peaceful solutions to conflict and strengthen international security.
![U.S. Leadership and the Challenge of ‘State Fragility’](https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2017-01/Fragile%20States%207923-X3.jpg?itok=dFynUilD)
U.S. Leadership and the Challenge of ‘State Fragility’
Much of today’s regional disorder and global upheaval is driven by fragile states—those with a frayed social compact between their people and government. State fragility fuels problems from the unprecedented refugee crisis to turmoil in the Arab world, and from pandemic diseases to some of humanity’s deepest poverty. To meet this challenge, three Washington foreign affairs institutions made recommendations to the next administration and Congress to produce a more strategic, disciplined, and sustained U.S. approach. The study’s chairs—William Burns of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Michèle Flournoy of the Center for a New American Security, and USIP’s Nancy Lindborg—public launched their report.
![Keeping Political Transitions Peaceful](https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2017-01/KPTP%207731-X3.jpg?itok=cnABEeoZ)
Keeping Political Transitions Peaceful
Countries from Myanmar to Chile have moved from autocratic regimes to more inclusive forms of government, though their experiences continue to be fraught with difficulties. On September 8, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a symposium exploring recent research on what factors encourage or inhibit peaceful transitions and how nascent democracies can overcome their fragility. The discussion included a focus on a new study released by Chatham House on Zimbabwe’s potential for peaceful democratic transition.
![Youth and Development Practices in Africa: What Works](https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2017-01/20160907-Youth-Event-Generation-Change-6014.jpg?itok=qn2gydau)
Youth and Development Practices in Africa: What Works
Marc Sommers, an internationally recognized expert on youth with research experience in more than 20 war-affected countries, examined the forces that shape and propel the lives of African youth today, particularly those experiencing or emerging from violent conflict, for his recent book The Outcast Majority: War, Development, and Youth in Africa. On Wednesday, September 7 the U.S. Institute of Peace held a discussion with Sommers by webcast as part of USIP's 60 days of focus on youth, peace and equality.
![Using Art to Wage Peace From Afghanistan to the Mideast](https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2017-01/WP%205884-X3.jpg?itok=Pk3Yya6B)
Using Art to Wage Peace From Afghanistan to the Mideast
Groups such as Afghanistan-based ArtLords and Awareness and Prevention Through Art, which works in the Middle East, are converting blast walls and blighted buildings into murals and other works that prompt discussions in their communities about how to reduce the injustices, social exclusion and other drivers of violent conflict. On July 28, practitioners convened at USIP to discuss how peace advocates can use street art to help build peace.
![Iraqi Foreign Minister on Aid, ISIS and Reconciliation](https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2017-01/IFM%208415-X3.jpg?itok=rGpktA9z)
Iraqi Foreign Minister on Aid, ISIS and Reconciliation
Iraq’s Foreign Minister Dr. Ibrahim al-Jaafari addressed his country’s role in the Middle East, its battle against ISIS/ISIL, relations with the U.S., and the need for international assistance, in an event at the U.S. Institute of Peace on July 19. It was his only public appearance during a trip to Washington for meetings with the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL and an international pledging conference to raise funds for relief and reconstruction, as the Iraqi government works with allies to prepare for the massive undertaking of recapturing the country’s second-largest city, Mosul, from ISIS control.
![The Global Refugee Crisis: Overcoming Fears and Spurring Action](https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/20160629-Amb-Power-event.jpg?itok=gzmPVhZ0)
The Global Refugee Crisis: Overcoming Fears and Spurring Action
On Wednesday June 29, Ambassador Samantha Power, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and a member of President Obama’s Cabinet, addressed an audience at the U.S. Institute of Peace on the urgent need for a concerted, global response to the current refugee crisis. She also previewed the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees that President Obama will convene at the U.N. on September 20.
![Frontline Diplomats and Development Workers](https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2017-01/FD%204280-X3.jpg?itok=AfDowq1s)
Frontline Diplomats and Development Workers
Deputy Secretary of State Heather Higginbottom spoke at the U.S. Institute of Peace on June 22 providing a progress report and discussion of how the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development are implementing their new strategy for lowering and managing those risks, based on the 2015 Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR).
![Youth, Peace and Security: New Global Perspectives](https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2017-01/YPS%203790-X3.jpg?itok=BRhnOs6d)
Youth, Peace and Security: New Global Perspectives
On June 14, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Inter-agency Working Group on Youth and Peacebuilding held a discussion of the resolution with the U.N. Secretary-General’s first Envoy for Youth H.E. Ahmad Alhendawi of Jordan, as well as young leaders from countries affected by violent extremism and armed conflict, and other senior experts.
![The Dalai Lama: To End Violence, Engage Youth](https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2017-01/HHDL%206730-X3.jpg?itok=8f6Npi37)
The Dalai Lama: To End Violence, Engage Youth
His Holiness the Dalai Lama campaigns not only for an end to violent conflict, but for the particular role of youth in achieving it. At a recent two-day dialogue in India with 28 youth peacebuilders convened by USIP, the Dalai Lama discussed ways to use universal spiritual values, such as compassion, in transforming violent conflicts into peaceful dialogue. On June 13, the Dalai Lama joined a few of these leaders at USIP to extend that discussion, which he and the youth participants say gives them new hope for their missions.
![Irreversible Damage: Civilian Harm in Modern Conflict](https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/styles/summary_image/public/2017-01/ID%206300-X3.jpg?itok=haDbSPtx)
Irreversible Damage: Civilian Harm in Modern Conflict
United States forces and their allies abroad have underestimated the irreversible damage done to their missions when they kill or harm civilians, says a new report by combat veteran and strategist Christopher Kolenda and human rights researcher Rachel Reid. On June 8, the report’s authors, with former Under Secretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy, held a discussion at USIP of their findings.