United States Institute of Peace

01/01/2021

China: The International Community is Failing Xinjiang’s Uyghurs

Our Lauren Baillie and Rachel Vandenbrink look at how the atrocity prevention toolkit failed in Xinjiang and consider necessary adaptations to halt ongoing atrocities and to protect the Uyghurs:

Documented evidence of large-scale human rights abuses in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region has painted a clear picture that Beijing is perpetrating mass atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim ethnic groups. But even in the face of transparent evidence, the strategies the internatio...

12/31/2020

Nuclear Diplomacy with Russia: What’s Ahead for the Biden Administration?

“Whatever the prospects for arms control, competition between the [U.S. and #Russia] is likely to continue in nonnuclear areas, such as conventional military, regional conflicts and information operations,” our Donald N. Jensen writes.

With relations between the United States and Russia at a low point, the incoming Biden Administration faces the challenge of finding the right balance between showing firmness toward the Kremlin and engaging on issues of mutual interest, above all arms control. President-elect Joe Biden has indicate...

12/30/2020

Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen on Israel’s Political Crisis

🎧 On this week’s episode of #OnPeace, our Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen gives an update on the political situation in Israel and analyzes various developments in the region.

As Israel heads toward a fourth elections in two years, USIP’s Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen says the incoming Biden administration will need to engage in a “balancing act” to “navigate this situation and not start off with a rocky, tempestuous relationship.”

12/28/2020

Women Building Peace Award

Peace processes that include women are more successful and sustainable. We are honoring the extraordinary efforts of women peacebuilders with our second annual #WomenBuildingPeace award. Learn more about how to submit a nomination here:

History has shown that civil resistance is most successful when women are engaged, peace processes are more likely to last when women are involved, and a country’s propensity for conflict is lower with higher levels of gender equality. The Women Building Peace Award represents the Institute’s co...

12/26/2020

China’s Influence on Conflict Dynamics in South Asia

South Asia includes some of the world’s most dynamic economies, two nuclear weapons states, internal cleavages, and disputed borders. What role does #China play in the region? Read our new #ChinaSouthAsia report:

China has embarked on a grand journey west. Officials in Beijing are driven by aspirations of leadership across their home continent of Asia, feelings of being hemmed in on their eastern flank by U.S. alliances, and their perception that opportunities await across Eurasia and the Indian Ocean. Along...

12/25/2020

Central African Republic: A Role for Religious Leaders in Calming Conflict?

Religious leaders are calming tensions in the Central African Republic. Learn how:

Presidential and legislative elections loom large in the Central African Republic (CAR) amid high tension and spikes in violence. CAR’s religious leaders have been on the frontlines of efforts to calm tensions ahead of polls opening on December 27. From religious leaders in the capital to those at...

12/24/2020

Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea: What’s Ahead for the Biden Administration?

Domestic challenges for the U.S. and #NorthKorea will likely limit bilateral engagement between Washington and Pyongyang, our Frank Aum and Ambassador Joseph Yun write.

The Biden administration faces a situation with North Korea similar to what President Obama faced in 2009, with U.S.-DPRK engagement on its last legs. Obama appeared interested in reviving the Six Party Talks, but slow outreach to North Korea allowed Pyongyang to seize the narrative by conducting a....

12/23/2020

May peace guide you this holiday season, and may the new year bring hope and renewal.

12/23/2020

Jacob Stokes on China’s Influence in South Asia

“The United States is an incredibly powerful country, but if we're not engaging our allies and partners, we're not going to be able to counterbalance China in the way we really need to,” our Jacob Stokes says #OnPeace.

#ChinaSouthAsia

Home to about 2 billion people, South Asia has become a strategic focal point for China’s growing global influence. USIP’s Jacob Stokes says to properly counterbalance Beijing in the region, the United States should focus “less about responding to China … and more engaging with the states of...

12/22/2020

Nigeria's Security Failures: The Link Between EndSARS and Boko Haram

Violence against protestors, the November Boko Haram massacre and the recent abduction of hundreds of students in Katsina State all underscore the wider failure of the Nigerian government to provide security for its citizens, Aly Verjee and Chris Kwaja write.

At first glance, the October state-led killings of protesters in Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, seem to have little in common with the November Boko Haram massacre of at least 43 farmers in Nigeria’s northeast, or the December 11 abduction of hundreds of school students in Katsina State. With va...

12/21/2020

China’s Influence on Conflict Dynamics in South Asia

One of the principal venues for potential U.S.-China competition—and potentially cooperation—is the South Asia region. More in our #ChinaSouthAsia Senior Study Group’s final report:

China has embarked on a grand journey west. Officials in Beijing are driven by aspirations of leadership across their home continent of Asia, feelings of being hemmed in on their eastern flank by U.S. alliances, and their perception that opportunities await across Eurasia and the Indian Ocean. Along...

12/19/2020

Jacob Stokes on China’s Influence in South Asia

🎧 On this week’s episode of #OnPeace, our Jacob Stokes discusses our Senior Study Group on China and South Asia’s latest report. Tune in here to learn more:

#ChinaSouthAsia

Home to about 2 billion people, South Asia has become a strategic focal point for China’s growing global influence. USIP’s Jacob Stokes says to properly counterbalance Beijing in the region, the United States should focus “less about responding to China … and more engaging with the states of...

12/18/2020

Nuclear Diplomacy with Iran: What’s Ahead for the Biden Administration?

Of all the pressing issues in the Middle East—wars in #Syria, #Yemen and #Libya, instability in #Iraq and #Lebanon, and the continued threat of ISIS—the most pressing for President-elect Biden will be #Iran’s controversial nuclear program, Robin Wright writes.

Of all the pressing issues in the volatile Middle East—wars in Syria, Yemen and Libya, unstable Iraq, imploding Lebanon, and the 10,000 ISIS fighters and other al-Qaida franchises still on the loose—the most pressing for President-elect Joe Biden will be Iran’s controversial nuclear program. H...

12/17/2020

Gridlocked Afghan Peace Talks Overcome Another Hurdle

While procedural rules of #AfghanPeace talks are finally settled, these issues are minor compared to pending discussions over the form of government Afghanistan should have, the fate of women’s rights, and a cease-fire.

Afghan peace negotiations began in mid-September, bringing together the Afghan government and Taliban for the first time to negotiate an end to four decades of war. But, since then, the talks have been mired in squabbles over basic procedures. Last week the sides made a breakthrough and agreed on th...

12/17/2020

From COVID to the Caliphate: A Look at Violent Extremism Heading into 2021

Colin P. Clarke summarizes some of the themes discussed at this year’s Rsolve Network Global Forum including how the continued threat of ISIS, the #COVID-19 pandemic and grievance narratives might impact the violent extremist landscape in 2021:

Heading into 2021, the violent extremist landscape is more diverse than at any previous point in the last two decades since the start of the U.S.-led Global War on Terrorism. While that effort was almost exclusively focused on combating violent extremist organizations motivated by Salafi-jihadism, t...

12/16/2020

Women Building Peace Award

Do you know a woman who exemplifies exceptional leadership through her vision and innovation and has earned the respect of her community in the pursuit of peace? Nominate her for the 2021 #WomenBuildingPeace Award:

History has shown that civil resistance is most successful when women are engaged, peace processes are more likely to last when women are involved, and a country’s propensity for conflict is lower with higher levels of gender equality. The Women Building Peace Award represents the Institute’s co...

12/16/2020

Live now: China's Influence on Conflict Dynamics in South Asia #ChinaSouthAsia

USIP Senior Study Group on China and South Asia Launches Final Report

Join the co-chairs and members of the Senior Study Group (SSG) on China and South Asia as they discuss their work and the report’s conclusions. The conversation will tackle topics such as U.S. interests in South Asia amid China’s growing role, Beijing’s interests in and approach toward the region, China-Pakistan relations, China-India relations, and China’s relations with the smaller South Asian states.

For more information about this event, please visit: https://www.usip.org/events/chinas-influence-conflict-dynamics-south-asia

12/15/2020

Steve Hege on Venezuela’s Elections

🎧 On our latest episode of #OnPeace, Steve Hege analyzes #Venezuela’s recent elections and how the results will impact future relations with the U.S. as well as addresses how #COVID-19 has impacted the region. Listen here:

Last weekend’s legislative elections proved to be “by no means fair or credible,” says USIP’s Steve Hege. To get the country back on track, Hege says a new U.S. administration will “have to work with the opposition and generate within the Venezuelan people some degree of belief in electora...

12/15/2020

Live now: Vanishing Media Freedoms Across South Asia #SouthAsiaMedia

Join USIP as we host distinguished journalists from South Asia to shed light on the challenges of the past year, share personal insights from the ground, and discuss what we can expect from South Asian governments and media outlets going forward.

For more information about this event, please visit: https://www.usip.org/events/vanishing-media-freedoms-across-south-asia

12/14/2020

Combatting Corruption Amid the Pandemic

Missed our discussion last week on ways citizen movements fight against corruption? Read the event summary here:

As the world deploys unprecedented measures to stem the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the assistance that many struggling people see as a beacon of hope also raises the risk for unchecked corruption. Without a strong counterbalance demanding transparency and accountability, built at the grassr...

12/13/2020

China's Influence on Conflict Dynamics in South Asia

On Wednesday, join our Senior Study Group on China to discuss U.S. interests in South Asia amid #China’s growing role, interests in, and approach toward the region, and China’s relations with #Pakistan, #India and other South Asian states. Tune in:

#ChinaSouthAsia

Join the co-chairs and members of the SSG as they discuss their work and the report’s conclusions. The conversation will tackle topics such as U.S. interests in South Asia amid China’s growing role, Beijing’s interests in and approach toward the region, China-Pakistan relations, China-India re...

12/13/2020

When the World Moves On: What’s Next for Nigeria’s EndSARS Movement?

While national and international condemnation appeared initially to have been effective in pressuring the Buhari administration to dissolve SARS, there has been little to no meaningful security sector reform in #Nigeria, our Jonathan Pinckney and Erin Zamora write.

This week, protesters once again filled the streets of several Nigerian cities as activists called for “Phase II” of the #EndSARS protests that rocked the country in October. While the protesters’ initial grievances focused on police violence by the country’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS...

12/12/2020

Gridlocked Afghan Peace Talks Overcome Another Hurdle

The rules for negotiations are necessary but far from sufficient to resolve any of the myriad political and security obstacles that lay ahead on the road to sustainable #AfghanPeace, our Scott Worden writes.

Afghan peace negotiations began in mid-September, bringing together the Afghan government and Taliban for the first time to negotiate an end to four decades of war. But, since then, the talks have been mired in squabbles over basic procedures. Last week the sides made a breakthrough and agreed on th...

12/12/2020

Spurred by China Rivalry, U.S., India Deepen Strategic Ties

Q: How do the bilateral defense agreements between the Washington and New Delhi affect #India’s ongoing tensions with #China and #Pakistan?

A: “These agreements put India closer to the U.S. than any other non-treaty ally,” our Vikram J. Singh writes.

The United States and India inked on October 27 a key agreement that will help New Delhi get real-time access to American geospatial intelligence. The agreement, known as the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA), was a result of the 2+2 ministerial dialogue between U.S. and Indian defense...

12/12/2020

အမေရိကန် ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးအင်စတီကျု့အကြောင်း (About the U.S. Institute of Peace)

ကမ္ဘာနှင့်အဝှမ်း ငြိမ်းချမ်း‌ရေးလုပ်ငန်းများ အကောင်အထည်ဖေါ်ဆောင်ရွက်နေတဲ့ အမေရိကန်ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးအင်စတီကျုအကြောင်း မြန်မာလိုမိတ်ဆက်ဗွီဒီယိုဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ မြန်မာပြည်အတွက် ပဋိပက္ခဖြေရှင်းရေးနဲ့ ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးလုပ်ငန်းစဉ်များမှာ ကျွန်ုပ်တို့နဲ့အတူပါဝင်ကြဖို့ ဖိတ်ခေါ်ပါတယ်။ https://www.usip.org/about

12/11/2020

Vanishing Media Freedoms Across South Asia

In South Asia, #COVID-19 has exacerbated the threats that journalists and media outlets face as economic pressures intensify and governments seek to further restrict media freedoms. Register for our December 15 event on challenges to media freedoms in South Asia:

Join USIP as we host distinguished journalists from the region to shed light on the challenges of the past year, share personal insights from the ground, and discuss what we can expect from South Asian governments and media outlets going forward.

12/11/2020

Mozambique’s Crisis Requires a New Playbook to Fight Extremism

As the U.S. and others pay more attention to threats emanating from #Mozambique, they should avoid the proven failures of an overly-militarized counterterrorism approach, our experts write.

Over the past three years, a local Islamist insurgency in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado has grown in strength and viciousness, developing ties with international terrorist groups and threatening one of the world’s largest natural gas projects. The insurgency is turning Cabo Delg...

12/11/2020

The Unfolding Conflict in Ethiopia

The tensions in #Ethiopia are more complicated than postponed elections or #COVID-19. They “reflect broader, unresolved debates about Ethiopia’s transition and federal arrangements,” our Susan Stigant said in her House Foreign Affairs Committee testimony last week.

Susan Stigant, director of Africa Programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace, testified on December 3, 2020 at the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organization's hearing on “The Unfolding Conflict in Ethiopia.” Her expert testimony ...

12/11/2020

Tunisia’s Citizens and Security Forces Come Together to Combat Coronavirus

In Medenine, southeast Tunisia, the Conflict Mediation Unit (CMU) recently organized several soccer matches between youth from the Al Harra, Dgagra and Kouraich neighborhoods and members of security forces. Why soccer? These matches helped strengthen bonds and build trust between youth and the security forces who patrol their communities. Tensions between the groups have historically run high, and have risen during government-mandated lockdowns to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of the security forces and the local youth decided to form the CMU after they were brought together in dialogue sessions as part of our Alliance of Tunisian Facilitators initiative.

In this video, Kais Benhouidi, a youth representative, says: “As you can see, this soccer game comes as an initiative under the framework of the community dialogue between youth and security forces, supported by USIP and in partnership with the Tunisian Association for a Republican Security. We are planning a lot of similar initiatives to create a bond between youth and security officers and bridge the gap between citizens and policemen. Such simple activities have great positive impact on the community to build social cohesion.” Learn more about these USIP programs to build peace in the North African country: https://www.usip.org/blog/2020/04/tunisias-citizens-and-security-forces-come-together-combat-coronavirus

As COVID-19 began to sweep the globe, the Tunisian government implemented strict measures to stem the spread of the virus, knowing the country’s underprepared health system would be overwhelmed by a widespread outbreak. Beginning on March 17, authorities enforced a 12-hour curfew. Days later, 400 ...