In the brief, Tobias Koepf reports on research he is conducting on the post-conflict reconciliation process in Côte d’Ivoire.

Summary

  • Recently, the Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara has been criticized for failing to ensure impartial justice for crimes committed during the 2010/2011 post-election crisis.
  • During the crisis, both forces supportive of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo as well as those forces who brought Ouattara to power were responsible for war crimes, but so far only former Gbagbo loyalists have been tried for the atrocities they carried out.
  • The international community is right in criticizing Ouattara for his failure to bring his own supporters to court, which constitutes a major stumbling block for the political reconciliation process that remains stalled since Gbagbo’s party, the Front Populaire Ivoirien (FPI), boycotted the December 2011 parliamentary elections.
  • However, pressure on Ouattara has to be exerted with care because the Ivorian president is facing the difficult challenge of bringing the influential zone commanders (Com’zones) to justice; they were responsible for most of the crimes committed by pro-Ouattara forces during the post-election crisis but continue to hold key positions in the Ivorian security forces.

About This Brief

Tobias Koepf was a Transatlantic post-doc fellow for International Relations and Security (TAPIR) at the U.S. Institute of Peace from June 2012 through January 2013. He is now a TAPIR fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) in Paris. This brief is based on research he is conducting on the post-conflict reconciliation process in Côte d’Ivoire.

Related Publications

The Latest @ USIP: How Civil Society is Addressing Haiti’s Crisis

The Latest @ USIP: How Civil Society is Addressing Haiti’s Crisis

Monday, March 25, 2024

By: Dr. Marie-Marcelle Deschamps

In the past few years, life in Haiti has been dominated by gangs’ growing control over huge swathes of the capital, Port-au-Prince. For Haitian families, this crisis has meant extreme violence, pervasive unemployment, lack of education for children and reduced access to health care. 2023 Women Building Peace Award finalist Dr. Marie-Marcelle Deschamps serves as the deputy executive director, the head of the women's health program and the manager of the clinical research unit of GHESKIO Centers in Port-au-Prince. She spoke to USIP about how her work helps women and their families, and what the global community can do to help Haitian civil society address this devastating humanitarian crisis.

Type: Blog

Conflict Analysis & PreventionGender

Myanmar’s Fateful Conscription Law

Myanmar’s Fateful Conscription Law

Monday, February 26, 2024

By: Ye Myo Hein

Earlier this month, Myanmar’s ruling junta enacted a compulsory conscription law that had been dormant since 2010. General Guan Maw, a leader of the Kachin Independence Organization, greeted the junta's decision by comparing it to the 2021 military coup: "If February 1, 2021, was the beginning of the end, the law enforced on February 10, 2024, can be said to mark the end of the end.” As popular reactions to the new conscription plan roll out across the country, General Guan Maw’s pronouncement becomes increasingly prescient.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

Report of the Expert Study Group on NATO and Indo-Pacific Partners

Report of the Expert Study Group on NATO and Indo-Pacific Partners

Monday, February 19, 2024

By: USIP Expert Study Group on NATO and Indo-Pacific Partners

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its four partner countries in the Indo-Pacific—Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and New Zealand—have entered a period of increased engagement. This engagement is taking shape in the context of the war waged by the Russian Federation (Russia) against Ukraine, NATO’s growing awareness of the security challenges posed by the People’s Republic of China (China), and important structural changes in the international system, including the return of strategic competition between the United States and China and Russia. It is occurring not only in bilateral NATO-partner relations but also between NATO and these Indo-Pacific countries as a group.

Type: Report

Conflict Analysis & PreventionCivilian-Military RelationsGlobal PolicyMediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

View All Publications