Publications
Articles, publications, books, tools and multimedia features from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest news, analysis, research findings, practitioner guides and reports, all related to the conflict zones and issues that are at the center of the Institute’s work to prevent and reduce violent conflict.
The Big Picture
Wars eventually end. Even the longest, most brutal, and most destructive conflicts ultimately give way to peace. Syria's civil war is no exception. All sides acknowledge that they are unlikely to prevail on the battlefield anytime soon, and both the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition have conditionally accepted the Geneva Communiqué for a political transition, endorsed by the Syria Action Group of the United Nations on June 30, 2012 (Geneva I). The United States, its Europ...
Iraqi Shiite Figure Advocates Civic, Not Religious State at USIP
An influential Iraqi Shiite scholar used a visit to the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) to argue that even amid the growing Shia-Sunni tensions and violence besetting his country, religious leaders there should support a civic rather than a sectarian conception of state affairs and politics.
Syrians Still Hoping for Justice and Accountability for Abuses
New research findings from the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC), a Syrian-led nonprofit organization based in The Hague, indicate that even as Syrians are caught up in a vicious, increasingly sectarian war, they generally want a negotiated peace settlement that will allow coexistence and establish accountability for abuses committed on both sides.
The Real eHarmony
When 2013 began, there was still smoldering controversy over the Innocence of Muslims movie "trailer" that had gone viral, sparking riots across the Middle East that left 50 dead and reportedly fueling the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. A year prior, an attack on a United Nations compound in Afghanistan that left at least 12 dead was spurred by the pastor of a tiny church in Gainesville, Fla., who publicized his planned Quran burning online.
A Moderate Proposal
2014 promises to be a make or break year for U.S.-Iran policy -- and for the very future of Iran itself. Indeed, the Obama administration's capacity to influence events in the wider Middle East will hinge, in part, on whether it can negotiate the November 2013 Interim Nuclear deal to a final agreement.
South Sudanese Diaspora Leaders at USIP Consider Online Speech Concerns
Members of the South Sudanese diaspora gathered at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) last week to explore ways of fostering their national unity, supporting peace efforts in a conflict with tribal dimensions and countering online speech that disparages people of other tribes.
Media That Moves Millions
Three years to the month since protests swept across the Middle East, the new year once again sees peaceful demonstrators facing off against hardened and sometimes violent security forces, this time in the Ukraine. And like in the Arab Spring, social media is being said to play a significant and potentially decisive role in empowering Euromaidan protesters in ways that couldn't have been imagined a decade ago.
'We Want to Move On'
CAIRO — The first day of a much-hyped constitutional referendum confirmed two things that most Egyptians already knew. First, this third referendum in as many years has little to do with the actual document being voted on. And second, there is virtually no question of what the result will be: The constitution will pass by a landslide.
Terms of Endurance
Only two and a half years removed from its birth, South Sudan is in crisis. A dispute between President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, his former vice president, has quickly taken on ethnic overtones and escalated into widespread fighting, with dire consequences. Over 1,000 people have been killed -- perhaps many more -- with another 200,000 displaced. The national army has split in two and is essentially fighting itself. Forces loosely aligned with Machar control several key parts of the countr...
Feingold Urges DRC Reforms, Great Lakes Regional Cooperation in Remarks at USIP
Africa's Great Lakes region is ripe for progress in resolving its deadly conflicts, particularly in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but it will take deeper regional cooperation and the DRC's full implementation of internal reforms that it has already agreed to, Russell D. Feingold, the U.S. special envoy for the Great Lakes and the DRC, said at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) on February 20.