International and Regional Organizations

In a major diplomatic victory for both countries, Kosovo and Macedonia recently concluded the demarcation of their shared border. This process of diplomacy, cooperation, confidence-building and reconciliation was conducted by a Joint Technical Commission (JTC) comprised of the two state parties and the International Civilian Office (ICO). 

Sudan faces challenges on many fronts, among them an ongoing conflict in Darfur, a fragile Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the north and south that ended decades of civil war, and upcoming nationwide elections at every level of government in 2010 (the first elections since 1986).  The US Institute of Peace is engaging all of these issues in an effort to help build a more stable Sudan. 

USIP's Haiti team organizes a group of top experts to produce analysis and draw attention to isues facing Haiti, and works in country on issues that include legal reform, criminal violence and conflict resolution.

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.

Since 2004, USIP's "Iraq and its Neighbors" initiative has sponsored track II dialogues and ongoing research on relations between Iraq and its six immediate neighbors. As part of this work, the Institute—in partnership with the Stimson Center—sponsored a bipartisan, independent, and unofficial Study Mission to Syria and Saudi Arabia in mid-January 2009. The delegation met with a wide variety of leading political figures, businesspeople, NGOs and foreign policy experts in both countries, including President Bashar Assad of Syria and Prince Turki al-Faysal of Saudi Arabia. The top concern for both Riyadh and Damascus remains blowback from Iraq: the ascendance of ethnic and sectarian identity and the spread of Islamic militancy. The need to contain this threat is the dominant force that shapes their relations with Iraq. Both Syria and Saudi Arabia have a vital interest in ensuring that Iraq's emerging political order is inclusive of Sunni Arab Iraqis, who have not yet been fully incorporated into Iraqi institutions. This working paper represents the initial findings of the Study Mission.

Overall, Syria has marginally benefited from the war in Iraq at both the regional and international levels. After watching the U.S. military unseat the Baathist regime next door in 2003 with unprecedented speed, it looked to many observers—including some in Damascus—as if Syria would be next in line.

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.