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.
Just because a movement of civic resistance establishes itself as nonviolent doesn’t mean it won’t experience violence in the course of the confrontation, however long the campaign might last. On Thursday, August 20, 2015, USIP's Global Campus hosted a Twitter Forum with activists and scholars to discuss nonviolent movements.
Arts and culture can become powerful media for bolstering peacebuilding efforts and steering individuals towards nonviolent expression. USIP hosted on July 16, 2015 a special photography display and panel discussion spotlighting the faces and stories of peacebuilders around the world. The event was part of a series in 2014 and 2015 marking the Institute’s 30th Anniversary.
On July 16, 2015, USIP President Nancy Lindborg, Kerri Kennedy of the American Friends Service Committee and Manal Omar, Acting Vice President, Center for Middle East and Africa, USIP, discussed the nexus of civil resistance and peacebuilding in the first of a new series by the USIP Global Campus. This event was held in collaboration with the online course, “Civil Resistance and the Dynamics of Nonviolent Movements.”
Director Joshua Oppenheimer showed and discussed his award-winning 2014 documentary, The Look of Silence, at the U.S. Institute of Peace on July 14.
What roles do media and the arts play in peacebuilding? Can theatre inspire nonviolent action to resolve conflict, transforming individuals from victims of violence to protagonists actively seeking to end it? The Embassy of Sweden, The Power of 7 team, and the U.S. Institute of Peace presented an interactive discussion on the use of the arts and media to create social change on April 29, 2015. This event was held at House of Sweden.
Genesis at the Crossroads, a Chicago-based organization that uses the arts in peacebuilding, joined the U.S. Institute of Peace on April 22, 2015 to host an interactive panel discussion on building peace and human rights—and the role that the arts and artists can play.
Nonviolent civil resistance has motored social and political change, even in the most difficult conditions, for centuries. From the Indian independence movement, to the U.S. civil rights movement, to successful challenges to dictatorship in the Philippines and Chile, to the “dignity” movements in the Middle East and North Africa, and recent popular uprisings in Brazil and Venezuela, mobilized citizens have used nonviolent direct action courageously, creatively and effectively. Policy-relevant research on civil resistance is expanding alongside the explosion of people power around the world. Over 80 participants attended this interactive, arts-and-culture infused discussion featuring cutting-edge civil resistance research by three USIP grantees.
People worldwide have been stirred by the dramatic images of “people power” movements calling for democracy and economic justice. The U.S. Institute of Peace held a panel discussion on Friday, March 6, on strategies for governments and non-government supporters to lend backing to movements for social change.