Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
Princeton Lyman, a former U.S. envoy for Sudan now at the U.S. Institute of Peace, says he thinks the diplomatic approach is working — using sanctions relief as leverage. "This is a very preliminary, first-step opening in a serious dialogue opening with Sudan," he says.
William B. Taylor spoke to SiriusXM POTUS Ch. 124 on the eve of President Trump meeting with President Putin in Hamburg, Germany, as part of the G-20 gathering. Taylor expressed reservations about the president to president dialogue versus other officials meeting given the level of Russia interference in the U.S. elections, continuing occupation of the Crimea and cyber attacks.
The U.S. Institute of Peace has established a memorial at its headquarters for members of its staff who were killed while serving USIP in its mission of promoting peaceful resolutions of violent conflicts abroad.
“Right now everyone is positioned” for routing Islamic State “without having the rules of the road,” said Michael Yaffe, a former State Department envoy for the Middle East who is now vice president of the Middle East and Africa center at the U.S. Institute of Peace. “That’s a dangerous situation.”
The U.S. Institute of Peace today honored soldiers of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division for their role in achieving a local peace accord in Iraq that offers a model for potential peacemaking and stabilization in the aftermath of ISIS. The peace agreement, in 2007, halted communal fighting in the region of Mahmoudiya, in an area that had been known as the “Triangle of Death.” The accord continues to underpin the relative stability of that area a decade later.
Nancy Lindborg spoke to SiriusXM POTUS Ch. 124 about the imminent defeat of ISIS in Mosul and the potential for revenge violence following Mosul’s liberation. Underscoring the importance for reconciliation, Lindborg explained how efforts a decade ago to negotiate a lasting peace accord between Sunni and Shia tribes in Mahmoudiya (a region sometimes called the “The Triangle of Death”) in Iraq averted revenge killings and violence.
The farming region of Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, is divided by one of Iraq’s most turbulent fault lines of conflict, between the country’s Sunni and Shia tribes. A decade ago, this region of palm groves and irrigation canals was a violent al Qaeda stronghold known as the “Triangle of Death.” Yet for 2016, news reports and the United Nations’ accounting of nearly 7,000 or more civilian deaths across Iraq noted few attacks in this region, a reflection of its relative stability in recent years.
The U.S.-backed military operation to rescue Mosul from the grip of ISIS appears to be on the brink of success. But a military victory over the extremist group is only the beginning of building a stable Iraq, a country where current conditions could incubate an "ISIS 2.0."
A new peace deal between the Bangui government and 13 major rebel groups in the Central African Republic is being met with criticism and skepticism domestically. The agreement signed Monday in Rome promised an immediate cease-fire in exchange for political representation for the rebels.
The U.S. Institute of Peace learned today that a forged letter, purportedly from the Institute, is circulating on social media, containing commentary about the forthcoming national elections in Kenya.