Centers of Innovation

Religion and Peacemaking Center

The Religion and Peacemaking Center conducts research, identifies best practices, develops new peacebuilding tools for religious leaders and organizations, and supports conflict resolution programming with religious leaders in conflict zones. The Center has defined and shaped the field of religious peacebuilding in the past 12 years; and in cooperation with USIP's other Centers, it has developed and implemented integrated strategies for the Institute's conflict-specific work.

R&P’s 10th Anniversary
In July 2010, the United States Institute of Peace’s Religion and Peacemaking program (RPP) turned 10 years old.   The evolution of RPP over the past decade -- taking into account its roots in a predecessor USIP program on religion in identity-based conflicts -- in many ways reflects the development of the larger field of religious peacebuilding in the United States.   Hence in order to mark the occasion of RPP’s 10 years of programs and research, a group of leading scholars, policymakers and practitioners from the field came together to reflect together on how the field has developed and to envision its future directions.  Participants discussed the U.S. government’s recent efforts to engage religious actors overseas to advance peace and security, the rapid growth of academic centers and programs addressing the intersection of religion, conflict and peacebuilding, promising initiatives in religious peacebuilding, and gaps and needs in the field as it moves forward.  The audio of this discussion, which took place on November 2011 at USIP headquarters, can be found here. Selected publications from this center are below:

Women in Religious Peacebuilding | May 2011 Peaceworks by Katherine Marshall and Susan Hayward with Claudia Zambra, Esther Breger, and Sarah Jackson

Crescent and Dove: Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam | October 2010 Book by Qamar-ul Huda