Publications
Articles, publications, books, tools and multimedia features from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest news, analysis, research findings, practitioner guides and reports, all related to the conflict zones and issues that are at the center of the Institute’s work to prevent and reduce violent conflict.
Question And Answer
Amid a Changing Global Order, NATO Looks East
Syria’s Sectarian Ripples across the Gulf
This Peace Brief, one of a five-part series on sectarianism in the Middle East, reviews how the Syrian crisis has affected the Gulf Arab states.
The Reluctant Sectarianism of Foreign States in the Syrian Conflict
This Peace Brief, one of a five-part series on sectarianism in the Middle East, analyzes the regional sectarianism and dynamics related to the Syrian conflict.
Security Sector Transformation in North Africa and the Middle East
International efforts to help Arab transition countries with security reform must be driven by country requests, involve many partners, and be tied to broader aims for justice, stability, and economic development.
The Gulf States and Syria
The brief examines the interests, connections and dimensions of Syria's popular uprising in the Arab Gulf states. Emile Hokayem is the Senior Fellow for Regional Security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Middle East based out of Mamana, Bahrain.
Crescent and Dove
Crescent and Dove looks at the relationship between contemporary Islam and peacemaking by tackling the diverse interpretations, concepts, and problems in the field of Islamic peacemaking. It addresses both theory and practice by delving into the intellectual heritage of Islam to discuss historical examples of addressing conflict in Islam and exploring the practical challenges of contemporary peacemaking in Arab countries, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
Islam and Democracy
Religion, Politics, and Power in the Middle East
The Arab World After Desert Storm
"In many ways the Gulf War has been a disaster for the Arab World" says the author of this fact-filled, carefully balanced, and yet provocative study.
Counterrevolution in the Gulf
Toby C. Jones has lived and worked in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Formerly the Gulf Analyst with the International Crisis Group, he is assistant professor of Middle East history at Rutgers University. He is the author of “Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia” (Harvard University Press, 2010).
Saudi Women Try to Break Enforced ‘Car-Free Diet’
Just outside Washington D.C., Arlington County encourages residents to practice a “Car-Free Diet” on occasion. I practiced a “car-free diet” for more than two years when I lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The most recent wave of protests by Saudi women to press – again – for the right to drive sheds light on the battle of values playing out in the public squares (and on the roads) of the reclusive Kingdom. The outcome of this struggle has consequences well beyond Saudi society, because it frames the contributions that women are allowed to make.
Biden’s Trip, and Ukraine’s War, Could Boost the Abraham Accords
President Biden’s Middle Eastern diplomatic mission this week contrasts with news reports and public discussion in the past year suggesting that the region has become a lesser priority for U.S. foreign and security policy. Biden’s visits to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian West Bank territory build on a reality that Middle Eastern states have been knitting new relations, notably via the 2020 Abraham Accords. They are doing so in ways that Biden’s visit, and overall U.S. diplomacy, can advance.