Programs

These experts work on active conflicts, supporting training and education, developing tools for practitioners and identifying best practices for ending violence.

 

 

Iraq elections Photo Credit: (Moises Saman/The New York Times)   (NYT Photos)

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.

Balance outside the judiciary (Nina Brantley/USIP)

Over 60 tribal, non-state systems of justice operate in South Sudan, alongside a struggling state legal system. Rule of Law is working with tribal chiefs, state judges, police and other stakeholders to map the law applied in each, improve cooperation between them, and develop an integrated approach to justice.

(U.S. Air Force photo / Staff Sgt. Joshua T Jasper)

USIP's Lessons Learned program captures the experiences of US military and civilian officials returning from work in Sudan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. 

Muslim World Initiative Logo

This initiative is designed to help to mobilize moderates, marginalize militants, and bridge the U.S./Muslim-world divide.

Electoral Violence Prevention Workshop in Khartoum, January 2009

Sudan's elections, currently planned for February 2010, are an important milestone of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Southern People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in 2005. The Institute's Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention and Education and Training Center-International have partnered to conduct workshops throughout Sudan in preparation for the elections. The workshops include civic education and democracy components, conflict resolution skills training, and case studies and simulations.

Muslim women at the market, Zanzibar (Credit: World Bank/Scott Wallace)
The Religion and Peacemaking program conducts research, identifies best practices, and develops new peacebuilding tools for religious leaders and organizations; helps define and shape the field of religious peacebuilding; and in cooperation with USIP's other Centers, develops and implements integrated strategies for the Institute's conflict-specific work, including projects with religious communities in zones of conflict.

 

A market in Africa (Credit: GIC Pretoria)

The Institute focuses on various dimensions of peacebuilding and conflict management, including the causal relationship between economic activity and the prospects for enduring peace.