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 experts convened on June 16 to discuss that question, offer updates from a just-concluded visit to Afghanistan, and explore how to help Afghans seize what may be missed opportunities to stabilize their country.
At the same time, literacy rates and primary school enrollment are falling. On June 9, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a discussion of these trends and others that contribute to extremist narratives, and some potential approaches to address these critical factors.
On April 17, Pakistani legislators visiting Washington met with their American counterparts and discussed their country’s challenges and the role that the National Assembly can play in meeting them.
More than 1 billion people live in countries affected by armed conflict or by the fragility of their societies. Fragile states are often vulnerable to conflict because their populations tend to see their governments as ineffective, illegitimate, or both. As a group, they are the ones that lag furthest behind in achieving the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. On Friday, March 27 USIP hosted a discussion regarding a new report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, “States of Fragility 2015: Meeting Post-2015 Ambitions.”
In celebration of International Women's Day, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a meeting of 12 women civil society leaders from India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Tanzania on Friday, March 6.
The devastating attack on the Peshawar Army Public School in December spurred Pakistan’s government, led by the Ministry of the Interior, to draft a 20-point National Action Plan against terrorism. The Honorable Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Pakistan’s minister of the interior, outlined the plan and his country’s terrorism challenge on February 18, his first public appearance in Washington since taking office in June 2013.
Pakistan’s expression of alarm at President Obama’s recent visit to India became another example of how relations between the two South Asian nations have turned increasingly sour in the past year. On February 9, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a panel discussion to explore the deteriorating India-Pakistan ties and the ramifications for the region and beyond.
December 16, 2014, may well have been Pakistan’s September 11. On January 27, the U.S. Institute of Peace held a panel discussion assessing Pakistan’s domestic security situation in the wake of the attack on the Army Public School and Degree College in Peshawar.
On November 19, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a panel discussion analyzing factors that have contributed to sectarian tension in Pakistan, placing these conflicts in both local context and in the regional context of trends in the greater Middle East and Islamic world.
On October 24, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, the McCain Institute and the Truman National Security Project-Center for National Policy convened a non-partisan meeting with senior diplomatic, military, media and NGO leaders on assessing civilian risk and engagement in diplomacy.