WASHINGTON – Fifty-one American high school students have been named winners of the 18th annual National Peace Essay Contest, sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC.  Each student will receive a $1,000 college scholarship and compete for the 2005 national first prize, a $10,000 college scholarship.  A list of winners, their schools, hometowns, essay titles, and faculty coordinators follows this release. The contest, which is open to students in all American high ...

WASHINGTON – Acknowledging that the job will be difficult, the co-chairs of the Task Force on the United Nations expressed confidence on Friday, April 15, that the United Nations can be reformed. Following a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell said that several factors, in addition to the commitment of the U.S. Congress, have combined to put the previously elusive task of reforming the United Nation...

USIP mourns the passing of George Kennan, the architect of the policy of “containment,” which guided U.S. relations with the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War. The Institute's best selling book Origins of the Cold War: The Novikov, Kennan, and Roberts 'Long Telegrams' of 1946 features Kennan's famous "Long Telegram."

WASHINGTON – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell criticized the government of the Republic of Sudan today for failing to issue visas to a member and staff of the Task Force on the United Nations. In a statement issued today, the co-chairs of the task force said they were “deeply distressed over the failure of the government of the Republic of Sudan to permit the travel.” The two noted that “despite having had more than ample time,” the Sudanese...

WASHINGTON—Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell will lead a new task force that will assess UN effectiveness and recommend actions for the United States to take to strengthen the world body. Mandated by Congress in the FY2005 omnibus appropriations bill at the behest of Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), the task force will examine the extent to which the United Nations is fulfilling the goals of its Charter and offer recommendations for U.S. action in a r...

WASHINGTON—For the first time since the outbreak of the second Intifada, there is majority public support among Israelis and Palestinians for a permanent, two-state peace settlement, according to recently released joint survey data from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in Ramallah and the Harry S. Truman Institute at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The Israeli survey work was directed by Jacob Shamir, a senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace and ...

WASHINGTON, DC – The United States Institute of Peace invites U.S. high school students to compete in the 2005 National Peace Essay Contest on the topic of “Transitions to Democracy.” The deadline for submitting essays is February 2, 2005. The contest, which is open to students in all American high schools, is designed to encourage serious and realistic thinking about issues of conflict management and peacebuilding. This year students are being asked to select two countries outside the Unite...

December 8, 2004 WASHINGTON—Congress has provided $100 million to the U.S. Institute of Peace for construction of a permanent headquarters facility in the FY 2005 omnibus spending bill signed today by President Bush. The Institute's new home is envisioned as a national center for research, education, training, and policy and program development on international conflict prevention, management, and resolution. "We are gratified by Congress' validation of the Institute's work over the last 20...