Latest Resources & Tools

	How Opium Profits the Taliban 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. Countries: Afghanistan, Asia, Pakistan \| Issue Areas: Economics and Development, Identity, Ethnicity, and Culture, Religion, Terrorism and Political Extremism
	Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World August 2009 \| Book by Daniel Brumberg and Dina Shehata, editors Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World highlights the challenges that escalating identity conflicts within Muslim-majority states pose for both the Muslim world and for the West, an issue that has received scant attention in policy and academic circles.
	Truth Commission: Panama July 2009 Truth Commission: Panama Truth Commission (Comisión de la Verdad de Panamá) Duration: 2001 - 2002 Charter: Executive Decree No. 2, January 18, 2001 Commissioners: 7 Report: Public report Countries: Panama \| Issue Areas: Rule of Law, Transitional Justice
	Truth Commission: Ethiopia July 2009 Commission of Inquiry: The Special Prosecution Process by the Office of the Special Prosecutor Duration: 1993 – 2007(?) Charter: Proclamation No. 22/1992 Commissioners: more than 400 staff at peak Report: [Public report on first year of activities] Countries: Ethiopia \| Issue Areas: Rule of Law, Transitional Justice
	Truth Commission: Solomon Islands July 2009 Truth Commission: Truth and Reconciliation Commission Duration: 2009 – 2010 (expected) Charter: Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act 2008 (No. 5 of 2008) Commissioners: 5 Report: Not yet issued Countries: Solomon Islands \| Issue Areas: Rule of Law, Transitional Justice
	USIP Addresses Refugee Crisis in Pakistan July 2009 \| Congressional Testimony by Imtiaz Ali USIP Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow Imtiaz Ali testified on July 29, 2009 before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs about "Responding to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Crisis in Pakistan. Countries: Pakistan \| Issue Areas: Humanitarian Efforts, International and Regional Organizations
	U.S. Institute of Peace Teaches International Security Personnel to Resolve Conflicts without Resorting to the Use of Force July 2009 \| Peace Briefing by Mary Hope Schwoebel Over the past decade, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) has trained members of police and military forces around the world to prepare them to participate in international peacekeeping operations or to contribute to post-conflict stabilization and rule of law interventions in their own or in other war-torn countries. Most of the training takes place outside the United States, from remote, rugged bases to centrally located schools and academies, from Senegal to Nepal, from Italy to the Philippines. Issue Areas: Civil-Military Relations, Training
	Hearing on the Afghan Economy July 2009 \| Congressional Testimony by Jeremiah S. Pam USIP Visiting Research Scholar Jeremiah S. Pam testified on July 14, 2009, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs on efforts by the U.S., the Afghan government and others to spur the Afghan economy in an effort to stabilize the country. Countries: Afghanistan \| Issue Areas: Capacity Building, Economics and Development, Governance
	A Renewable Energy Peace Park in the Golan as a Framework to an Israeli-Syrian Agreement July 2009 \| Peace Briefing by Yehuda Greenfield-Gilat The widely discussed Syrian-Israeli peace park concept is rooted in the assumption that Syrian and Israeli "good will" for cooperation is sufficient to mobilize a long- lasting, firm peace treaty between the two countries. The current discussions on a layout for a peace park provide a description of the mechanisms that will control and maintain the park, but fail to provide the insights for how to keep these mechanisms functioning in one, five or ten years into the future. Countries: Asia, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Syria \| Issue Areas: Environment and Natural Resources
	Counting the Costs of Somali Piracy July 2009 \| Working Paper by Raymond Gilpin Authored by USIP's Raymond Gilpin, this new working paper offers practical strategies to mitigate the rising costs of Somali piracy and lay the foundation for lasting peace. The upsurge in attacks by Somali pirates between 2005 and mid-2009 reflects decades of political unrest, maritime lawlessness and severe economic decline which has dire implications for economic development and political stability in Somalia. Countries: Somalia \| Issue Areas: Economics and Development, Terrorism and Political Extremism

	How Opium Profits the Taliban 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. Countries: Afghanistan, Asia, Pakistan \| Issue Areas: Economics and Development, Identity, Ethnicity, and Culture, Religion, Terrorism and Political Extremism
	Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World August 2009 \| Book by Daniel Brumberg and Dina Shehata, editors Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World highlights the challenges that escalating identity conflicts within Muslim-majority states pose for both the Muslim world and for the West, an issue that has received scant attention in policy and academic circles.
	Truth Commission: Panama July 2009 Truth Commission: Panama Truth Commission (Comisión de la Verdad de Panamá) Duration: 2001 - 2002 Charter: Executive Decree No. 2, January 18, 2001 Commissioners: 7 Report: Public report Countries: Panama \| Issue Areas: Rule of Law, Transitional Justice
	Truth Commission: Ethiopia July 2009 Commission of Inquiry: The Special Prosecution Process by the Office of the Special Prosecutor Duration: 1993 – 2007(?) Charter: Proclamation No. 22/1992 Commissioners: more than 400 staff at peak Report: [Public report on first year of activities] Countries: Ethiopia \| Issue Areas: Rule of Law, Transitional Justice
	Truth Commission: Solomon Islands July 2009 Truth Commission: Truth and Reconciliation Commission Duration: 2009 – 2010 (expected) Charter: Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act 2008 (No. 5 of 2008) Commissioners: 5 Report: Not yet issued Countries: Solomon Islands \| Issue Areas: Rule of Law, Transitional Justice
	USIP Addresses Refugee Crisis in Pakistan July 2009 \| Congressional Testimony by Imtiaz Ali USIP Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow Imtiaz Ali testified on July 29, 2009 before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs about "Responding to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Crisis in Pakistan. Countries: Pakistan \| Issue Areas: Humanitarian Efforts, International and Regional Organizations
	U.S. Institute of Peace Teaches International Security Personnel to Resolve Conflicts without Resorting to the Use of Force July 2009 \| Peace Briefing by Mary Hope Schwoebel Over the past decade, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) has trained members of police and military forces around the world to prepare them to participate in international peacekeeping operations or to contribute to post-conflict stabilization and rule of law interventions in their own or in other war-torn countries. Most of the training takes place outside the United States, from remote, rugged bases to centrally located schools and academies, from Senegal to Nepal, from Italy to the Philippines. Issue Areas: Civil-Military Relations, Training
	Hearing on the Afghan Economy July 2009 \| Congressional Testimony by Jeremiah S. Pam USIP Visiting Research Scholar Jeremiah S. Pam testified on July 14, 2009, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs on efforts by the U.S., the Afghan government and others to spur the Afghan economy in an effort to stabilize the country. Countries: Afghanistan \| Issue Areas: Capacity Building, Economics and Development, Governance
	A Renewable Energy Peace Park in the Golan as a Framework to an Israeli-Syrian Agreement July 2009 \| Peace Briefing by Yehuda Greenfield-Gilat The widely discussed Syrian-Israeli peace park concept is rooted in the assumption that Syrian and Israeli "good will" for cooperation is sufficient to mobilize a long- lasting, firm peace treaty between the two countries. The current discussions on a layout for a peace park provide a description of the mechanisms that will control and maintain the park, but fail to provide the insights for how to keep these mechanisms functioning in one, five or ten years into the future. Countries: Asia, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Syria \| Issue Areas: Environment and Natural Resources
	Counting the Costs of Somali Piracy July 2009 \| Working Paper by Raymond Gilpin Authored by USIP's Raymond Gilpin, this new working paper offers practical strategies to mitigate the rising costs of Somali piracy and lay the foundation for lasting peace. The upsurge in attacks by Somali pirates between 2005 and mid-2009 reflects decades of political unrest, maritime lawlessness and severe economic decline which has dire implications for economic development and political stability in Somalia. Countries: Somalia \| Issue Areas: Economics and Development, Terrorism and Political Extremism