Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Connecting Civil Resistance and Conflict Resolution
In 2011, the world watched millions of Egyptians rally peacefully to force the resignation of their authoritarian president, Hosni Mubarak. “When Mubarak stepped down … we realized we actually had power,"...
How to End the War in Ukraine
The recently expanded U.S. sanctions against Russia, preparations for a massive Russian military exercise next door to NATO allies in September and a spike in casualties this year on the battlefields of Ukraine...
In Iraq's Former 'Triangle of Death,' a Decade of Stability
Ten years ago, nearly 3,500 U.S. troops fought—and 54 died—to suppress tribal warfare and an al-Qaeda insurgency on a battleground known as the “Triangle of Death.” The Army’s 10th Mountain Division...
Pakistani PM’s Ouster Muddles Fight on Taliban, Beyond
Pakistan’s political stability is always tenuous on the best days. The decision by the country’s Supreme Court to send Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif packing for misstating...
How Funders Can Support Nonviolent Action Amid Crackdowns
When China’s national legislature passed a landmark bill in December 2015 outlawing domestic violence, it was the result of an unusual civic movement that reached far beyond groups concerned with violence against women. Instead, HIV-AIDS organizations, LGBTQ activists and legal experts joined the campaign...
Drought, Al-Shabab Threaten Somalia’s Recovery Plan
Somalia is one of four countries, along with Yemen, South Sudan and Nigeria, threatened with famine this year. Drought and conflict have already pushed nearly 3 million Somalis—roughly the size of Chicago’s population--to the brink of starvation, an unimaginable scale of human suffering. Worse yet is that history could repeat itself—less than a decade ago, famine killed nearly 260,000 Somalis, half of them children under 5. But the situation is different this time in at least two important ways.
For an Afghanistan Strategy, Put Peace Talks at the Fore
Senior U.S. civilian and military officials frequently acknowledge that there is no military solution to the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, and that a peace process is needed to reach a politically negotiated end to the conflict. But for years, the military effort to win the war has sucked up the lion’s share of policy (and media) resources. Political efforts to negotiate peace remained a sideshow that never gained much traction.
Dialogues for Peace: Four Ideas That Can Improve Them
Across a violent world, governments, U.N. agencies, foundations and peace organizations sponsor dialogue projects every year, working to reduce bloodshed. In national civil wars or local land disputes, trained “facilitators” guide antagonists toward compromise. But do these approaches work, and if so, how?
South Sudan: Friendship Over Fear (Video)
A civil war that has plagued South Sudan, the world’s newest country, over the past four years verges on ethnic genocide and has left half the prewar population in need of humanitarian aid. As the international community tries to help end the violence, the U.S. Institute of Peace brought two of the country’s promising young leaders—one from each side of the divide—to Washington to pursue research on ways to heal the rifts. By the end of their stay, they may have learned just as much from each other.
After ISIS, Urgent Questions of Women’s Roles in Iraq
The liberation of Mosul and the Islamic State’s rollback in the rest of Iraq means urgent questions about the nation’s future are quickly rising to the surface. Among the pressing concerns that had been subordinated...