Iraq

Iraq Programs: Preventing Interethnic and Interreligious Violence

Intergroup Dialogue Workshops

In spring 2004, USIP launched a two-year project to foster cooperation among Iraq's ethnic and religious groups. As part of the first phase of the project, USIP's Professional Training program provided three basic training workshops in conflict management skills to 116 local and regional leaders from the governorates of Ninewa, Tamim (Kirkuk), Diyala, Salah ad Din, Al Anbar, and Baghdad. Workshop participants came from diverse government and civil society backgrounds—provincial and municipal council members, heads of NGOs, tribal sheikhs, journalists, lawyers, economists, engineers, and academics. Building on the participants' shared commitment to peaceful intergroup dialogue, the five-day workshop focused on skills in negotiation, mediation, and problem solving. The first workshop was held in May at the Baghdad Convention Center, and was facilitated by Anne Henderson, a program officer in the Professional Training program, assisted by team members Dan Serwer, director of Peace and Stability Operations, and Sloan Mann, a program officer in the Peace and Stability Operations Program. A second program took place in Sulaymaniyah in August 2004. USIP facilitators were Anne Henderson, Sloan Mann, and Liane Martindale, also a program officer in the Professional Training program. Liane Martindale and Sloan Mann conducted a third program in December 2004 in Sulaymaniyah.

Immediately following the third introductory workshop, USIP conducted a five-day advanced training for a core group of 25 participants drawn from the participants in the three basic Training programs. The focus of the advanced training was on facilitation and training techniques. Daniel Serwer, Liane Martindale, and Sloan Mann led this program. In addition, Patricia Karam, program officer in USIP's Grant program, provided participants training in formulating effective project proposals.

In the second stage of this project, USIP will solicit project proposals from organizations led by participants in the advanced training. The objective is to bring together government and civil society leaders in key zones of conflict in Iraq for problem-solving dialogues on building a better future and reducing violence.

In the final phase of the project, Iraqi teams, working with USIP facilitators, will conduct national-level workshops for alumni of regional programs and other nationally recognized experts. These workshops will simultaneously enhance skills and generate policy proposals for addressing contentious political, religious, legal, and educational issues facing Iraq during its transition to democracy. USIP's Professional Training program is working in cooperation with the Grant and Peace and Stability Operations Programs to develop mechanisms and resources to support the Iraqi facilitators and ensure the success of their project. This will include monitoring the projects and requiring the preparation of a business plan for each proposed project.

• Learn more about the work of USIP's Professional Training program.

Iraqi Institute of Peace

The religious landscape of Iraq is highly diverse: a Shiite majority long prevented from full representation in the state, a Sunni minority that has supplied most of Iraq's military and political leadership, predominantly Sunni Kurdish and Turkomen populations concentrated mainly in the north with substantial numbers in Baghdad as well, a small Christian community, and other, less well-known communities like the Yezidi. After years of dictatorship, the scene is now set for an intense and potentially violent competition for political dominance.

To help address this situation, Coventry Cathedral, in partnership with USIP's Religion and Peacemaking Initiative, has embarked on an effort to establish an Iraqi center for dialogue, reconciliation, and peace—the Iraqi Institute of Peace (IIP). With the blessing of key religious leaders in Iraq, this project seeks to facilitate interethnic and interreligious cooperation to help build the foundation necessary for the successful transformation of Iraq to a pluralistic and tolerant democracy.

USIP's support for the IIP, which dates from its founding in 2003, has enabled the IIP to work with key religious leaders in Iraq to:

• Attempt to delegitimize terrorism and political violence;
• Develop effective working relations between Sunni, Shiite, and Christian leaders;
• Promote the status of women; and
• Serve as advisor to Iraq's interim prime minister on interfaith relations.

USIP is currently working with the British government and the International Reconciliation Centre of Coventry Cathedral to help set in place support for the core costs of the Iraqi Institute of Peace.

• Learn more about USIP's Religion and Peacemaking Initiative.

"Iraq and Its Neighbors" Dialogues

Long-term efforts to stabilize and rebuild Iraq will depend in large part on the cooperation of its neighbors, each of which could exacerbate intercommunal conflict within Iraq. At the same time, Iraq's neighbors are intensely interested in the security posture of the new Iraq and especially the future role of U.S.-led coalition forces following the transfer of sovereignty. With these concerns in mind, USIP will commission a series of studies on regional security, along with, economic, political, and other challenges facing Iraq and its neighbors to examine both potential points of conflict and cooperation. In addition, USIP will help bridge the divide between research and policymaking through the facilitation of a series of semi-official dialogues involving key regional policymakers, civil society leaders, and opinion makers from Iraq's neighbors. These dialogues are designed to improve mutual understanding and cooperation in the region as well as to apply the results of USIP's sponsored policy research.

Another important component of state building and democratization in Iraq is the re-establishment of constructive relations with neighboring states. To facilitate this endeavor, grants will be given for research, education, and dialogue projects designed to improve understanding about Iraq's regional relations, as well as to promote improved communication and cooperation between Iraq and neighboring states.

• Learn more about the Iraq and Its Neighbors project.

Interethnic, Intercommunal, and Interreligious Violence Prevention Grants

The emergence of Iraq as a democratic and stable state depends upon good communication and acceptance of differences among Iraq's varied ethnic and religious groups. To facilitate this communication, USIP seeks to:

1. Provide grants to Iraqi civil organizations to promote interreligious and interethnic dialogue.
2. Improve interethnic cooperation at the community level and strengthen moderate Islam.
3. Develop educational materials and Training programs that advance ethnic and religious understanding and tolerance.

A Look at Selected Grant Projects Supported by USIP:

Intercommunal Dialogue Facilitation Initiative – A mosque-based project promoting intercommunal understanding between Shia and Sunni women. Activities will include interactive "awareness workshops" on intercommunal relations to facilitate discussion among religious mothers and schoolteachers at the primary and middle school levels in Iraq.

Iraq Foundation – A project to initiate dialogue among leading members of Iraq's Sunni and Shia communities to diminish the likelihood of conflict in the post-Baath period. With the exception of limited dialogue on federalism, there have been no bilateral or multilateral discussions among Iraq's many ethnic communities. Yet issues relating to Sunni political dominance under the Hussein regime and Shia demands for political control in post-Hussein Iraq are potentially explosive. This project will result in the organization of three mediated workshops held outside Iraq for Sunni and Shia participants and a subsequent a report of the workshop proceedings including outcomes and recommendations.

Brandeis University – A research project to result in the publication of a book on the interplay between group and national identity among Arab Shiites in Iraq, Lebanon, and the Persian Gulf states. This grant project seeks to illuminate the political aspirations of the Shia in the Arab world and their evolving view of America.

Conflict Management Group – An educational initiative spearheaded by two American universities, one American NGO, and three Iraqi Kurdish universities to assess the needs and resources of three Kurdish universities in northern Iraq to conduct programs in conflict resolution and negotiation. Working with 30 Kurdish professors based in Iraq, the project will also design and implement a conflict resolution curriculum through a multidisciplinary approach including law, social science, psychology, and journalism.

Washington Kurdish USIP – A book project that examines transnational Kurdish affiliated diaspora networks and their impact on Kurdish nationalist activities in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. Research will be undertaken at Dohuk University in Iraq, as well as in Berlin and London, which has two of the largest Kurdish diaspora communities.

• Learn more about USIP's Grant program.