A failure by the international community to help rebuild Iraq will leave a vacuum that Russia, Iran or some new extremist group will seek to fill, warned the co-chairman of a working group in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. In a recent discussion at the U.S. Institute of Peace, Ekkehard Brose agreed with the top U.S. State Department official on Iraq, Joseph Pennington, that Iraq must ultimately solve its own problems. But at this point, it can’t, Brose said.

Democracy & Governance; Violent Extremism; Global Policy

A civil war that has plagued South Sudan, the world’s newest country, over the past four years verges on ethnic genocide and has left half the prewar population in need of humanitarian aid. As the international community tries to help end the violence, the U.S. Institute of Peace brought two of the country’s promising young leaders—one from each side of the divide—to Washington to pursue research on ways to heal the rifts. By the end of their stay, they may have learned just as much from each other.

Youth; Democracy & Governance

From reducing violent conflict to creating underlying conditions for peace, facilitated dialogue has long been used in pursuit of peacebuilding goals. In June 2015, the United States Institute of Peace commissioned a meta-review of its grant-funded dialogue projects since 1992. In an effort to better understand how and why dialogue programs can be effective in different contexts, to enhance future programmatic efforts, and to contribute to the evidence base for the benefit of the broader peacebuilding community, this report synthesizes the key findings from that evaluation.

Mediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

Derek Mitchell, senior advisor to USIP's Asia Center, testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy

USIP's Peace Teachers Program is rooted in the conviction that educators can be pivotal in bringing peace themes into their classrooms, schools, and communities.

Education & Training; Youth

In the past dozen years, Pakistan has been hit by eight earthquakes, including a magnitude 7.6 trembler that killed more than 86,000 people. The next quake in Pakistan is not a matter of if, but when. So the humanitarian community has focused on a game-changing idea known as resilience—taking actions...

Fragility and Resilience; Global Policy

Sixteen years after the start of the international intervention in Afghanistan, the country remains beset by a debilitating array of conflicts, undermined political stability, an economic and security decline since the withdrawal of a majority of international forces, and a divided government since the 2014 elections. As the US government, its partners, and NATO consider...

Democracy & Governance; Fragility and Resilience; Global Policy

A group of senior U.S. military and civilian leaders recently agreed to find ways to work together more effectively to counter violent extremism in the volatile Lake Chad Basin of Africa, a region reeling from the casualties and destruction wrought for years by terrorist groups such as Boko Haram. The agreement emerged from a new exercise model...

Civilian-Military Relations; Fragility and Resilience