Latest In the Field

Peru’s social conflicts have been growing in tandem with its economy in the past few years. The expansion of the country’s extractive industries, mainly oil and gas, has been at the core of the government’s economic growth strategy. By giving some of the region’s most attractive hydrocarbons investment incentives, Peru has succeeded in attracting dozens of new foreign oil companies, mainly for development in the largely unexplored Amazon jungle.

On February 13, 2010 USIP’s Kabul office organized a series of closed-door meetings with Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Congressman Baron Hill of Indiana, Afghan tribal elders, and Afghan women leaders to discuss progress on reconstruction in Afghanistan. Some of the major issues they discussed were security, governance/rule of law, development, the role of international forces, and reconciliation.
 

Eleven years ago, Kosovo was a war zone on the world’s front pages, an ethnic and nationalistic cauldron in which both national and international laws seemed an utter irrelevance.  When the guns at last fell silent, Colette Rausch worked for several years in Kosovo as part of the international community’s attempt to construct the rule of law amid the rubble.  Last fall, she returned to find out whether, from the perspective of the people of Kosovo, the international community's efforts had been invaluable or in vain.

In December 2009, Deborah Isser and Tim Luccaro traveled to Monrovia, Liberia to present the findings of the recent USIP Peaceworks, "Looking for Justice: Liberian Experiences with and Perceptions of Local Justice Options," to senior government officials, and to facilitate a meeting between Liberia's Legal Working Group and the nation's traditional leaders.

In December 2009, Jason Gluck accompanied a delegation of officials and civil society leaders from Sudan’s Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states to Indonesia for a five-day study tour of Indonesia’s recent experiences with secession and negotiated local autonomy. The lessons the Sudanese brought home will prove invaluable in the coming months as they design and implement their own process of self-determination.