As a national, nonpartisan, independent Institute, the U.S. Institute of Peace draws on our exceptional convening power to create opportunities for diverse audiences to exchange knowledge, experiences, and ideas necessary for creative solutions to difficult challenges. We serve as an important, neutral platform for bringing together government and nongovernment, diplomacy, security, and development actors, and participants across political views. The Institute’s events help shape public policy and priorities to advance peaceful solutions to conflict and strengthen international security.
USIP hosted a two-part livestream of USIP’s Dialogue on War Legacies and Peace. The event brought together diplomats, advocates and authors to draw lessons from U.S. engagement in Southeast Asia that could apply to conflicts elsewhere in the world. The inspiring presentations looked at how Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians are healing from wartime suffering and building a future based on trust and shared interests.
On June 2, 2022, the U.S. Institute of Peace together with The VII Foundation will open “Imagine: Reflections on Peace,” a multimedia exhibit that explores the themes and challenges of peacebuilding through an immersive look at societies that suffered — and survived — violent conflict. Using historical photos, texts, video profiles and interactive opportunities, the Imagine exhibit brings visitors face-to-face with the realities of violent conflict and asks the question: “Why is it so difficult to make a good peace when it is so easy to imagine?”
On July 6, USIP held a conversation with journalist and author Elizabeth Becker, atrocity investigator and educator Ly Sok-Kheang and former advisor to the Extraordinary Chambers Courts of Cambodia Susana SáCouto to reflect on role of documentation in achieving justice and accountability.
On October 14 USIP and the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO) held a discussion that reflected on the principles of the agreements, the extent to which signatories have adhered to them and the continued relevance of the agreements today.
Cambodia’s 1991 peace accord launched a process of cease-fire, peacekeeping and rebuilding that stabilized the country, but left deep wounds still unhealed from the 1970s genocide and decades of war. The Cambodian peace process was one of the first of its scale undertaken by the international community after the Cold War—and a quarter-century of work to implement it offers lessons for current and future peacebuilding work, both in Cambodia and worldwide. On December 15 at USIP, two panels discussed how the accords were achieved, political tensions since then, lessons that might be drawn from Cambodia's experience for other peace processes, and what role the international community might play going forward to preserve the peace and the intent of the accords.
The U.S. Institute of Peace, in collaboration with Vital Voices Global Partnership and the Bernstein Family Foundation, convened a panel discussion with women leaders from Brazil, Cambodia, and Palestine on April 4 at USIP. These 2013 Vital Voices Global Leadership Award honorees offered unique perspectives on working with government and civil society, and on the importance of an enabling environment that supports their work.
Upon the publication of "Pandemics and Peace: Public Health Cooperation in Zones of Conflict" (USIP Press, June 2011), panelists Dr. Jose Fernandez, Dr. Allyn Taylor, and author Dr. William J. Long discussed the relationship between pandemics and peace.