Monday, March 25, 2024
Puzzled by China’s Foreign Policy? Look Inside Instead
The linchpin for better understanding China’s foreign policy may lie less in watching its external moves than in analyzing its domestic dynamics. While President Xi Jinping has taken a more assertive approach to foreign policy than his predecessors, he continues to spend most of his time on internal issues such as party consolidation, the anti-corruption campaign, military reform and economic growth. Those efforts, plus pressures from the party elite, public opinion and the military, create a...
Dialogue Leaders Push Past Traumas of War, Determined to Grasp for Peace, Part 3
(cont’d from Part 1 and Part 2) At the center of some of the world’s most violent conflict zones, a cadre of civic leaders and scholars are defying cynicism and fatalism to achieve what few believe possible: facilitating sustainable negotiated agreements that forestall cycles of violence, allow people who’ve fled violence in their communities to return home, and establish new terms for peaceful cooperation.
Dialogue Facilitators Reach for Tradition to Heal Modern Rifts, Part 2
(cont’d from Part 1) Zoughbi Zoughbi, an expert in mediation from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, likes to tell a story that reflects traditions in the region. It’s about a local man who gets angry because someone has taken his watch. An offer of compensation, even twice the value of the timepiece, won’t suffice, writes Zoughbi, a member of a U.S. Institute of Peace conflict resolution program in the Middle East and North Africa, in a handbook published by his non-profit organization. The v...
In MENA Region’s Turmoil, USIP Dialogues Confront Tensions, Part 1
In the midst of Tunisia’s fragile transition, angry standoffs emerge frequently, echoes of the tensions that triggered the Arab Spring five years ago. As the informal economy mushrooms, for example, the police—reared under authoritarian rule—regularly crack down on street vendors selling everything from clothes to food to appliances. One such incident flared in 2014, and the risk of violence was palpable. It was just the kind of scenario that called for the skills of someone like Tarek Lamouc...
Electing Peace: What Works in Preventing Election Violence
The ongoing tension and turmoil in Haiti, Uganda, and Macedonia once again demonstrate the complex relationship between elections, democratic stability and peace. Peaceful elections help create the foundation for stable political transitions. But in poorly governed states, elections often trigger violence and intimidation.
Beyond Elections in the Central African Republic
After successfully holding national elections on Feb. 14, the Central African Republic is poised for a new stage of its political transition and the rebuilding of the country following years of deadly conflict. But outgoing Interim President Catherine Samba-Panza told USIP in a videotaped interview last week that any sustainable resolution and reconciliation will have to involve the population at the grassroots level.
Women Charting a New Course on Peace and Security
The fact that Afghanistan’s parliament has 69 female members, 27 percent of the total, illustrates the advances, albeit still tenuous, that are possible with determined efforts to support the protection and empowerment of women. At the same time, women worldwide still suffer disproportionately from conflict and violent extremism. In the run-up to International Women’s Day on March 8, USIP has collected statistics and the observations of global leaders to illustrate hard-won achievements and the devastating gaps that remain.
Uganda’s Pre-Election Violence Spurs USIP-Trained Youth to Act
Two Ugandans, Hassan Ndugwa and Nulu Naluyombya, are campaigning to ensure that this month’s elections challenging President Yoweri Museveni’s 30-year rule are peaceful, even as the government has arrested critics and opposition party workers. Drawing on concepts and skills of dialogue, storytelling and active listening that they learned in USIP’s Generation Change Fellows Program, the two estimate their message has reached 20,000 people.
Sudan’s National Dialogue Poses Test to Government’s Commitment
In Sudan, a country still struggling with violent conflict in Darfur and two other states, almost 700 participants in a national dialogue process are finalizing recommendations after three months of vigorous and genuine discussion. But legacies of tension and division are hard to overcome. Key groups that must be involved for any resolution to be sustainable have not joined. Most concerning, the open debate exercised within the national dialogue does not extend outside the doors of Friendship...
Syria Dialogue Gets Results in Push for Local Peace
The crosscurrents of conflict lay just beneath the surface when 14 religious, tribal and civic leaders from the al-Qahtaniya area of northeastern Syria first met last summer, brought together by a USIP project to ease communal tensions. By the time they and others reconvened four months later, the diverse group had shepherded the return of 100 families and won the reopening of a road vital to reaching markets nearby. In one corner of northern Syria, the threat of violent local conflict had receded.