Capacity Building

Peace doesn't automatically return when the guns stop firing or an agreement is signed. This team works to advise newly-forming governments and institutions, promote and maintain community reconciliation, and help different groups on the ground to coordinate their efforts to maintain security and provide services.

May 2009 | Daniel Brumberg and Eriks Berzins
On February 23, 2009, the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), together with the United Nations Association-USA and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, held a roundtable discussion among top Middle East experts and former United States Government officials. Held at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the meeting’s purpose was to discuss prospects for creating a diplomatic framework through which the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran can address issues of common concern in the Middle East and South Asia, and in so doing, advance an engagement dynamic that might eventually open the doors for rapprochement between the two countries.

On October 28, USIP hosted a public event to discuss Guinea's political, security, and social environment in the wake of the September 28, 2009 clash between the Guinean military and demonstrators protesting Dadis Camara's candidacy in next January's presidential elections.

The upcoming 2010 elections and 2011 referendum in Sudan are the culminating events of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the National Congress Party and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement. However, looking at 2011 and beyond, there is increasing concern that Sudan may revert to violence rather than move forward towards the sustainable peace envisioned by the CPA.

USIP’s Beth Cole presents ideas for military and civilian cooperation to increase security and stability in Afghanistan and Iraq to a House Armed Services subcommittee.

USIP has been engaged in the Balkans since 1996, starting in Bosnia immediately after the signing of the Dayton Accords, and later expanding its activities to Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia.

The Asia Foundation will release findings from its fifth public opinion poll, "Afghanistan in 2009: A Survey of the Afghan People," the most comprehensive survey conducted in all 34 of Afghanistan’s provinces.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, Congress provides oversight and resources for U.S. programs to reform local military and police forces. This process is critical to U.S. success, but is little understood. USIP's Security Sector Reform Working Group examined the role of Congress in ensuring that security assistance is effective, serves U.S interests and creates democratic security forces.