Lawrence Woocher

Senior Program Officer, Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention

Welcome to USIP.org

We have recently undertaken a complete redesign of our site to better improve your online experience. In the process, we may have moved materials around, categorized them in a different way, or removed those that were inaccurate and out-of-date. We hope you enjoy exploring around the new site. (This message will only appear the first time you visit our site or if you clear your browser cookie.)

Download print-quality image

Contact

Phone: 202-429-3807

E-mail: lwoocher@usip.org

Resources & Tools

Core Conflict Management Resources
An online toolkit for peacemakers, negotiators, and other conflict management practitioners.
Conflict Prevention - A Strategic Framework
This strategic framework, one in a series of peacebuilding frameworks being developed by USIP, provides a sophisticated, but easily understandable way of conceptualizing conflict prevention. The framework is organized around a desired end state of "stable peace." The core of the framework is found in the leadership responsibilities and key objectives. The key objectives are divided into three broad, potentially complementary preventive strategies—mitigate global risks, mitigate societal risks, halt and reverse escalation—and a series of objectives under each. The framework is designed to be useful to a wide range of conflict prevention practitioners—from policymakers to local field workers.
On the Issues: Human Rights and Peacebuilding
USIP has supported over 300 products, projects, and activities related to human rights and peacebuilding. From grants to fellowships, from training to education, from working groups to publications, the Institute strives to encourage more practice and scholarly work on the issue of human rights, and seeks to deepen understanding of the role human rights play in conflict and in peace.

All Resources & Tools

Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis, Conflict Management and Resolution, Early Warning & Conflict Prevention, Human Rights, Humanitarian Efforts, Peacekeeping, Security and Strategy

Lawrence Woocher is a senior program officer in the Institute’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, where he focuses on early warning, conflict prevention, and the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities. He was a member of the executive committee and lead expert on early warning for the Genocide Prevention Task Force, co-chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen. He is also a lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.

Before joining the Institute in late 2006, Woocher was a research fellow at Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution and, concurrently, a consultant on early warning to the Office of the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide. From 2004 to 2006 he served as program manager of Global Policy Programs at the United Nations Association of the USA.

From 2001 to 2003 he was a research associate/special projects manager at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Woocher received a master’s in public policy with a focus on international security and political economy from Harvard’s Kennedy School, and a bachelor’s in neuroscience from Brown University.

Publications:

Preventing Genocide: An American and Global Imperative. UNA-USA E-newsletter (January 7, 2009).
Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for U.S. Policymakers. Final report of the Genocide Prevention Task Force (2008). (Contributing expert).
The Effects of Cognitive Biases on Early Warning. Presented at the International Studies Association Annual Convention (2008).
"Peace Operations and the Prevention of Genocide," Human Rights Review (2007).
Early Warning for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. Presented at the International Studies Association Annual Convention (2007).
Developing a Strategy, Methods and Tools for Genocide Early Warning. Prepared for the Office of the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide (2006).
"Peacebuilding and Prevention," WFUNA Reform Forum (2006).
Could President Bush Have Said More about Genocide? UNA-USA E-newsletter (February 6, 2006).
The United Nations and American Public Diplomacy. UNA-USA E-newsletter (December 2005).
"Deconstructing 'Political Will': Explaining the Failure to Prevent Deadly Conflict and Mass Atrocities," Journal of Public and International Affairs (2001).
The Casamance question: an examination of the legitimacy of self-determination in southern Senegal. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights (2000).

Multimedia:

Australia’s ABC News Breakfast interviews Woocher on Obama’s inauguration and foreign policy challenges for the new administration (January 20, 2009).
VOA’s On the Line interviews Woocher on preventing genocide (December 2008).
A blueprint for improving U.S. government response to threats of genocide and mass atrocities. Voices on Genocide Prevention (December 11, 2008, MP3).

Events

	September 17, 2007 Behind the Numbers: Assessing Indices of Peace, Conflict, and Instability Issue Areas: Early Warning & Conflict Prevention, Humanitarian Efforts, International and Regional Organizations, Nongovernmental Organizations, Political Systems and International Relations
	May 21, 2008 Community-Centered Conflict Prevention and Preparedness: New Paradigm? Issue Areas: Civil Society, Civil-Military Relations, Conflict Analysis, Conflict Management and Resolution
	December 11, 2008 Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for U.S. Policymakers- A Panel Discussion on the Report of the Genocide Prevention Task Force A public event co-sponsored with the American Academy of Diplomacy and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Issue Areas: Early Warning & Conflict Prevention, Human Rights, Identity, Ethnicity, and Culture

All Events