Events at USIP

Since taking office in August 2018, Colombia’s government has sought to devise new strategies to advance peace and security in a country long plagued by armed conflict and organized criminal violence. Political consensus around peace, however, has remained elusive.  The United States Institute of Peace, the Inter-American Dialogue, and the Woodrow Wilson Center on Tuesday, December 11th hosted a c...

The world’s most violent conflicts are being fought within its most youthful populations. In the five countries that suffered nearly 80 percent of recent deaths from violent extremism, half of all people were younger than 22. The youth in these countries are also some of their communities’ most effective peacebuilders and best hopes for breaking cycles of violence. On December 12, USIP streamed a...

Trends in global terrorism change every year. From fragile states to urban megacities, data shows how many societies are impacted by violence. But, how does this data help prevent and counter violent extremism?  The findings of the sixth annual edition of the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) provide data on the evolving trends of global terrorism that are useful for policy, programming and research.

Over the last two decades, policy frameworks like the Women, Peace and Security agenda, provide a valuable platform for advocacy efforts. Yet such approaches do not tackle the underlying issue of gender inequality. As researchers have documented, where there is less gender equality there is less peace.  The U.S. Civil Society Working Group on Women, Peace and Security and the U.S. Institute of Pea...

Do postwar peacebuilding interventions work to keep peace? How do we measure the effectiveness of such international interventions? Join former USIP Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow Pamina Firchow as she discusses her findings on how to measure the impact of local-level interventions on communities affected by war. 

Global adversaries, especially states like Russia, China and Iran, use sharp power tools of coercion, disinformation and proxy campaigns to achieve their geopolitical goals and weaken Western influence.  Former U.S. ambassadors Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL) and Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) discussed their views on how soft power tools can and should be used to counter sharp power employed by global adversar...

As the loss of ISIS territory drives thousands of “foreign terrorist fighters” to return home, and hundreds of people convicted of terrorism-related offenses are scheduled for release over the next several years, communities worldwide are faced with rehabilitating and reintegrating people disengaging from violent extremism. USIP hosted this discussion of how policies and programs can address traum...

The 2018 National Defense Strategy asserts that the United States is emerging from a post-Cold War period of “strategic atrophy.” On October 30, 2018, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a discussion with Secretary Mattis on how the National Defense Strategy seeks to meet the shared challenges of our time through strengthening and evolving America’s strategic alliances and partnerships. 

One in five elections worldwide is marred by violence—from burned ballot boxes to violent suppression of peaceful rallies, to assassinations of candidates. A USIP study of programs to prevent violence suggests focusing on improving the administration and policing of elections. The study, of elections in Kenya and Liberia, found no evidence that programs of voter consultation or peace messaging wer...

Jessica Baumgardner-Zuzik Director of Learning & Evaluation, Alliance for Peacebuilding Michael Findley Professor of Government and Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin Lise Morjé Howard Associate Professor of Government, Georgetown University Renard Sexton Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton University and International Crisis Group Rebecca Wolfe Director of Evidence & Influence, Merc...

Maciej Bartkowski PhD, John Hopkins University Sarah Mendelson Distinguished Service Professor of Public Policy and Head of Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University Dmytro Potekhin Founder and CEO, FakesRadar.org Moderator: Charles North Senior Advisor, Ukraine, U.S. Institute of Peace

PeaceCon Welcome and Keynote Address: Ambassador Bill Taylor Vice President, U.S. Institute of Peace Liz HumeVice President, and Acting CEO, Alliance for Peacebuilding Robert Burke Chairman, Alliance for Peacebuilding General Anthony Zinni U.S. Marine Corps (Retired) Thomas Staal Counselor, USAID, Keynote   Global Policy Frameworks on Sustaining Peace - A Call for Collaborative and Collective Acti...

Peacebuilding work matters, but we still struggle to show evidence of where interventions have led to positive outcomes, such as a clear reduction in violence or increased cooperation. The Peacebuilding M&E Solutions Forum is an opportunity for practitioners to come together, network and connect with people working in this space, and share best practices, lessons learned, results, and evidence...

Why do peacebuilders sometimes succeed and sometimes fail, even within the same country? Why can organizations not guarantee the same results from the same policies? In her newly published book, Global Governance and Local Peace: Accountability and Performance in International Peacebuilding, Susanna Campbell dives into why peacebuilding organizations often fail and presents one of the keys to succ...

A groundbreaking new monograph, “When Civil Resistance Succeeds: Building Democracy After Popular Nonviolent Uprisings,” by Jonathan Pinckney,  demonstrates that nonviolent movements make democratic transitions more likely and lead to stronger democracies. The U.S. Institute of Peace and ICNC hosted a presentation by Dr. Pinckney followed by a panel discussion. The event provided key takeaways for...

As the new Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government settles into its second month in office, it has yet to publicly articulate a comprehensive vision for its foreign policy. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has promised that Pakistan’s foreign policy will “begin and end at Pakistan,” but many questions remain on how the government intends to implement this vision. At an initial meeting i...

The evolution of U.S.-China relations over the last 40 years presents challenges that, if not properly managed, threaten American leadership in key places of strategic interest, from Asia to Africa to the Western Hemisphere. Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) joined USIP for a Bipartisan Congressional Dialogue about the People’s Republic of China as it increases its mali...

Violence and crime are the main drivers of mass immigration from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador into the United States. These countries form a region known as the Northern Triangle, which ranks in the top 10 worldwide for homicide, corruption, drug trafficking and gang violence.   Over the past several decades, a significant amount of U.S. funds have been allocated to the war on drugs, rather...

For six months this year, USIP convened a group of 13 senior experts to examine China’s involvement in Myanmar’s internal conflicts—particularly those in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan states—and peace process. On September 17, USIP hosted a discussion with the group’s co-chairs on the main findings of their report, which is the first in USIP’s China Senior Study Group series examining China’s influenc...

This interim report of the Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States explains why such a preventive strategy is needed and what it might entail. In 2019, the Task Force will propose a comprehensive preventive strategy to mitigate the conditions that give rise to violent extremism Speakers: Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats Task Force Co-Chair Governor Tom Kean Senator Kelly Ayotte USIP P...

Amid unprecedented challenges to the postwar order, the U.S.-U.K. special relationship is critical to upholding democracy and the rule of law and promoting international peace and stability. Speaking at USIP—a U.S. national institute dedicated to preventing violent conflict and building peace around the world—the foreign secretary spoke about the challenges currently being presented to the rules-b...

Pakistan's national elections on July 25 ushered in a new government, with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party now set to head a new governing coalition and former cricket star Imran Khan expected to become prime minister. After a controversial campaign period, the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)—whose former leader Nawaz Sharif was imprisoned just days before the elections—ha...

Religion influences both peace and conflict worldwide. Violent extremism is often framed in religious terms, and religious discrimination continues to increase as both a driver and symptom of conflict. But, religion drives peace and coexistence as well and religious actors are essential for advancing religious freedom. Efforts to engage religious actors in countering violent extremism (CVE) and in...

On Thursday, July 26, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) joined the U.S. Institute of Peace to give remarks on U.S. policy options in Iraq in the post-ISIS era. She discussed the protection of religious minority groups and offered her perspective on Iranian influence in the country and region. Senator Ernst is the first female combat veteran to serve in the U.S. Senate, having retired as a Lieutenant...

South Sudan’s civil war is one of the most brutal and destructive conflicts of the 21st century. Could the war have been prevented? Could some of the atrocities and misery caused by the war have been avoided? On July 19 the U.S. Institute of Peace and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide hosted a discussion on what lessons should be learned from U...