As Afghanistan enters its harsh winter season, a massive humanitarian disaster appears increasingly likely. Facing food shortages, rising prices, and a breakdown in public services, millions of ordinary Afghans need immediate assistance as their country veers toward economic collapse...

Environment;  Economics

The former rebel commander once sat across a table from Secretary of State John F. Kerry. He signed the historic peace deal that ended Colombia’s 52-year internal conflict. He accepted responsibility for kidnappings and killings by his guerrillas, apologized to the victims, became a member of a legal political party and was elected a senator in the country’s Congress...

Peace Processes

As soon as the first gunshots echoed across the courtyard from the street outside, the congregation began to scatter. The worshippers at Kandahar’s Bibi Fatima mosque were all too aware of the fate of their fellow Shia Muslims in Kunduz a week earlier and immediately started running. The warning came too late. Suicide-bombers had shot their way into the building. Seconds later a cloud of dust engulfed the scene as they blew themselves up...

Violent Extremism

Global Policy

The United States and Colombia are holding high-level talks Thursday as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wraps up a trip to the region that has included a focus on migration policy and upholding democracy. Blinken told reporters Wednesday after meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque that the two countries have many areas of potential cooperation, including in sectors such as cloud computing, health technology and agriculture...

Mediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

As Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels to Colombia, USIP’s Keith Mines notes there is still work to be done in implementing and expanding the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC insurgency, saying that “consolidating the peace in a place like Colombia was almost as hard as fighting the war itself.”

Mediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

Our guest is Ambassador William B. Taylor, who is Vice President of Strategic Stability and Security at the U.S. Institute of Peace. From June 2019 to January 2020, he served as chargé d’affaires and acting ambassador at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv. He also served as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009. A longtime expert on, and participant in, the U.S. government's foreign service, Ambassador Taylor recently gave an address at the Tulsa Committee on Foreign Relations (TCFR) titled "Russia, Ukraine, and a Biden Doctrine."

Global Policy