Resources & Tools

November 2009 | Peace Briefing by Renata Stuebner

As Bosnia and Herzegovina’s longtime tradition of religious coexistence is disappearing, USIP examines how education for new generations can improve multiethnic understanding in the postwar country.

Cover of Lebanon's Unstable Equilibrium (Image: U.S. Institute of Peace)
November 2009 | Peace Briefing by Mona Yacoubian

In the wake of Lebanon forming a new government, USIP assesses how the country can ensure ongoing political progress and stability.

Mostar, Bosnia (Photo: NYT)
September 2009 | Peace Briefing by Megan Chabalowski and Michael Dziedzic

As ethnic tensions heat up in Bosnia, USIP assesses several policy prescriptions and the areas of disagreement and agreement of how the international community and the region itself should address the problems in the struggling country.

September 2009 | Peace Briefing by Barbara Zasloff, Adina Shapiro, and A. Heather Coyne

Education plays a critical role in preparing communities for change and has made important contributions to post-conflict reconciliation in numerous war-torn societies, yet education issues have largely been excluded from past efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  A new USIP report argues why an education track should be included in the negotiations phase and in the text of an agreement itself, and puts forward practical recommendations on how Israelis and Palestinians – and the international community – can move forward with a successful peace process that incorporates education.

Blood Oil in the Niger Delta - SR229 (Image: USIP)
August 2009 | Special Report by Judith Burdin Asuni

The trade of stolen oil, or “blood oil,” in Nigeria is fueling a long-running insurgency in the Niger Delta region that has claimed many lives. A USIP special report by Judith Burdin Asuni shows how the big business of blood oil poses a threat not only to the Nigerian state and the region, but to the international community as well.

August 2009 | Special Report by Alan Schwartz

More political violence will be hard to avoid in Sudan, barring a quick change in current trends, according to a new USIP report. Much of the outcome hinges on the handling of issues that involve the 2011 referendum on whether the South secedes from Sudan.

Afghan farmer in poppy field. (Photo: NY Times)
August 2009 | Peaceworks by Gretchen Peters

In Afghanistan's poppy-rich south and southwest, a raging insurgency intersects a thriving opium trade. A new USIP report, How Opium Profits the Taliban, examines who are the main beneficiaries of the opium trade, how traffickers influence the Taliban insurgency as well as the politics of the region, and considers the extent to which narcotics are changing the nature of the insurgency itself.

Map of Pakistan (Courtesy: CIA)
May 2009 | On the Issues by Rodney W. Jones

President Barack Obama recently met with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai and pressed the two leaders to do more to combat Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in the border area.

Rodney W. Jones, program officer for USIP’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, assesses Pakistan’s efforts to battle insurgents, the Obama administration’s new approach on Pakistan and Afghanistan, and what USIP is doing to address the problems in the troubled region.

Credit: USAID Photo-Georgia
May 2009

An online toolkit for peacemakers, negotiators, and other conflict management practitioners.

Credit: The New York Times/Chang W. Lee
April 2009 | Special Report by Radwan Ziadeh

The Kurds of Syria, in contrast to the Kurds of Iraq and Turkey, are little known in the West, but they have similarly strained relations with the state that governs them and face human rights abuses as a minority. The Syrian state’s repression of its Kurdish population, which thus far has not sought a separate state, may contribute to Kurdish claims for self-determination in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.