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.
The U.S. Institute of Peace, in collaboration with the Embassy of Sweden, hosted a forum with new Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström on diplomacy and gender equality in a challenging global security environment. The forum, followed by a panel discussion and a reception, took place at the Institute on Wednesday, January 28.
December 16, 2014, may well have been Pakistan’s September 11. On January 27, the U.S. Institute of Peace held a panel discussion assessing Pakistan’s domestic security situation in the wake of the attack on the Army Public School and Degree College in Peshawar.
On January 5, USIP held a policy-level discussion about mission mandates for long-term, locally-owned solutions, the first in a series of conversations on advising as a means to provide foreign assistance and capacity building to partner countries.
Nearly every modern U.S. administration has named special envoys or special representatives to address high-stakes conflicts by applying the kind of concentrated attention that exceeds the day-to-day capacity of the State Department and other regular bureaucratic structures. But how well does this approach really work? And what should be done to bolster the effectiveness of these envoys?
On December 18, USIP hosted members of the Hand in Hand school community to discuss their experiences in the wake of the recent attack on their school in Jerusalem. Panelists discussed the Hand in Hand model of coexistence within the broader field of peacebuilding, as well as the waves of diverse support and interest they’ve seen in the wake of the attack.
On December 16, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a discussion on the future of Central Asia as potentially the major geopolitical crossroads of our time.
One year after South Sudan erupted into violence there are still no solutions for what might be done to end the conflict. Experts convened on Facebook on December 15, 2014 for a discussion on the peace process, transitional justice and more.
The United States Institute of Peace and SparkMedia hosted a screening of Red Lines, the story of two young unlikely Syrian activists who, in 2012, launch a radical plan to bring democracy to their country, besieged by the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad.
On December 5, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the FP Group, publisher of Foreign Policy magazine and foreignpolicy.com, held the third installment of PeaceGame. This PeaceGame examined peace keeping and peace making issues as they relate to the rise in global violent extremism. All attendees were invited to contribute to the conversation throughout the day with live, interactive polling and open mic questioning.
On November 19, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a panel discussion analyzing factors that have contributed to sectarian tension in Pakistan, placing these conflicts in both local context and in the regional context of trends in the greater Middle East and Islamic world.