Under the Bougainville Peace Agreement, 97.7 percent of Bougainvillians voted for independence from Papua New Guinea in a 2019 nonbinding referendum. But despite this near-unanimous result, the agreement itself was unclear on how the process should proceed — leaving the governments of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea to develop a political settlement on their own. Kevin Pullen, a doctoral candidate at the Australian National University, explores where the negotiations stand today, why it’s important to prepare Bougainville to manage its own affairs regardless of what shape the political settlement may take, and the situation’s impact on U.S. Indo-Pacific policy.

Type: Blog

Peace Processes

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outlined to the Ukrainian parliament last week, for the first time in a public address, his victory plan to end the war. The plan, a roadmap on how to bring to the conflict to a close, contains five sections and three classified annexes that cover everything from meeting military requirements today to rebuilding the Ukrainian economy at the conclusion of the war. Zelenskyy has attempted to gather resources for the war and rally allies around a common goal. He spent the past two weeks on the road, briefing senior U.S. leaders, including both presidential candidates, Europeans and NATO’s secretary-general on what he sees as vital to ending Russia’s war on his country in an enduring way: NATO membership.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy;  Peace Processes

Looking out from the town hall in downtown Sarajevo, you’d be hard pressed to find evidence of the nearly four-year-long siege that devastated the city during the Bosnian War. The surrounding area is clean and filled with new and repaired buildings — even the town hall itself is a restoration of the pre-war library that once occupied the space. 

Type: Analysis

Democracy & Governance;  Peace Processes;  Religion

Unsurprisingly, the conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East and Sudan dominated discussions among world leaders at the recent U.N. General Assembly. So did calls to reform and strengthen the international system, reflecting shifting global power dynamics. Diplomatic meetings in New York also revealed how these increasingly complex conflicts and shifting power dynamics are coming together in an emerging trend: a more diverse set of countries striving to mediate conflicts. At the beginning of the week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss avenues to peace, building on Modi’s recent trips to Kyiv and Moscow. At the end of the week, Chinese and Brazilian officials co-hosted an event to garner international support for their peace plan for Ukraine, which Kyiv opposes.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy;  Mediation, Negotiation & Dialogue;  Peace Processes