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.
Serious and contentious questions surround the issue of how the international community should relate to Somalia. Should major support be given to the Transitional Federal Government? Should the African Union peacekeeping force be expanded?
Is constitutional reform in Bosnia needed, and if so how urgently? Will the EU accession process provide the necessary incentives to make it happen? What more is needed? A panel of experts will address these questions.
Major General Robert Caslen, recently returned from Iraq, where he served as commanding general of Multinational Division - North, discussed the strategic relationship between the U.S. and Iraq post-2011.
What is the way forward for the U.S. and its Afghan and international partners?
With more than four million internally displaced Colombians- an average of more than a quarter of a million people annually in recent years- and almost half a million more forced to flee across national borders in search of safety, Colombia now ranks just behind Sudan in the numbers of people displaced by the conflict. Women, youth, Afro-Colombians, and indigenous communities have been disproportionately affected by the conflict and by the displacement it causes.
In a major diplomatic victory for both countries, Kosovo and Macedonia recently concluded the demarcation of their shared border. This process of diplomacy, cooperation, confidence-building and reconciliation was conducted by a Joint Technical Commission (JTC) comprised of the two state parties and the International Civilian Office (ICO).
As Liberia continues its struggle to rebuild institutions destroyed by years of brutal conflict, the rule of law has emerged as a focus area of national and international development efforts. A key policy question concerns the future of Liberia’s dual justice system under which a hierarchy of chiefs’ courts managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs exists in parallel to the formal judiciary. Co-authors Deborah Isser and Stephen Lubkemann discuss the policy implications of the newest USIP ...
Join us for the launch and panel discussion of a new USIP-funded SIPRI report by Bates Gill and Chin-hao Huang entitled, China's Expanding Role in Peacekeeping: Prospects and Policy Implication.
In The Next Front, co-authors Senator Christopher Bond and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lewis M. Simons argue that the Obama administration can reverse the devastating effects of failed policies throughout the Islamic community in Southeast Asia by adopting a new "smart power" approach, one that combines the "soft" tools of diplomatic, economic and personal outreach with the fallback "hard" option of military force. By so doing, the United States can begin to reverse the growth of Isla...
Lack of justice and a culture of impunity have emerged as major grievances in Afghanistan, alienating the population from the government and creating an enabling environment for the insurgency. Please join us for a discussion of informal and formal justice systems, and an overview of USIP’s justice projects that aim to strengthen linkages between these two sectors and address impunity.