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
Whither NATO at 75?
At Ukraine’s Edge, Russia Presses Hybrid War on Tiny Moldova
At a sensitive edge of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Moscow is sustaining a campaign to regain control in Moldova, the small, ex-Soviet republic landlocked between Ukraine and Romania. Russia has maneuvered for years to scuttle Moldovans’ aims to join the European Union, crimping their economy and controlling easternmost Moldova with Russian troops and proxies. A Kremlin-backed party won a Moldovan regional election in May and Moscow will aim to defeat Moldova’s pro-European national government in elections by 2025. The United States and its partners should urgently unify efforts to help Moldovans sustain their independence and stability.
Heather Ashby on Moscow’s Diplomatic Approach to the Russia-Africa Summit
After pulling out of a U.N.-backed grain deal, Russia may be looking for ways to ship more grain and fertilizers to African countries ahead of the Russia-Africa Summit. But the summit’s success is far from certain, “not only because of the war in Ukraine, but because Russia hasn’t lived up to its previous promises,” says USIP’s Heather Ashby.
Russia Expands Its War on Ukraine — to Global Food Supplies
Russia’s Vladimir Putin has again made his invasion of Ukraine an effective war on global food supplies. Having scuttled the year-old deal to allow grain exports via the Black Sea, Putin is attacking Ukraine’s ports to cripple the ability of a major food grower to supply world markets. These actions immediately increased grain prices, holding the world’s poorest people hostage to Moscow’s demands. Putin’s new belligerence is likely to damage his efforts to build political support from China and the Global South. The United States should lead efforts to hold Russia accountable for any new hunger crises from these acts, and to press Putin to reverse this course.
Four Takeaways from the ASEAN Summit
Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathered last week in Jakarta, with a range of critical challenges to address. Chief among those issues was the crisis in member state Myanmar, which the bloc is divided on how to approach. China’s aggressive activities in the South China Sea were also a key topic at the summit, with Beijing and ASEAN pledging to reach an agreement on a long-stalled non-binding code of conduct.
One Vital Change Can Advance Long-Term Peace in Ukraine
While NATO’s recent summit consolidated the transatlantic consensus that a peaceful Europe requires a democratic and inclusive Ukraine, Ukrainians’ heroic struggle for that democracy must overcome old corruptions, plus new traumas inflicted by Vladimir Putin’s war. A pillar of any democracy is civil society — the constellation of citizens’ groups that, more than government, can understand and heal domestic conflicts. So as international partners support Ukraine’s rebuilding from war, we must urgently engage its vibrant civil society — not as a mere adjunct to government efforts, but as a primary designer and engine of the political and cultural changes that peace will require.
Great Power Competition Implications in Africa: The Russian Federation and its Proxies
Joseph Sany, vice president of the Africa Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace, testified on July 18, 2023, before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa's hearing on "Great Power Competition Implications in Africa: The Russian Federation and its Proxies."
U.S. Sends Mixed Signals with Cluster Munitions and Chemical Weapons Calls
The Biden administration’s National Security Strategy is grounded in a “belief that the rules-based order must remain the foundation for global peace and prosperity.” Yet international security norms have come under increasing threat in the past decade, from China’s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea to the Syrian government’s use of mustard gas against its own people. Most egregiously, Russia’s unprovoked assault on Ukraine and continuing war crimes threaten basic principles of sovereignty and humanity in international law. Amid the many foreign policy challenges the United States faces, the question it must confront is how to uphold international norms, while still pursuing U.S. interests.
The NATO Summit: Three Takeaways for Europe, War and Peace
This week’s NATO summit conference wrought significant advantages for Ukraine in its fight for independence, and on behalf of Europe’s security. Ukraine and most NATO members sought an unconditional invitation for Ukraine to join the NATO alliance following its war with Russia. They achieved part of that goal — a shorter, clearer path to Ukraine’s membership, USIP analysts note. Turkey’s reversal, to support Sweden’s accession to the alliance, strengthens the community backing the Ukrainians’ self-defense. While the summit had no prospect of lightening the burdens of defending Ukraine, Europe and the international rule of law, it accomplished what was achievable in the moment.
Russia’s Wagner Uprising Will Force a Kremlin Reshuffle in Africa
Three weeks after Russia’s Wagner Group mounted an armed uprising against authorities in Moscow, the still-swirling fallout will force changes in the mercenary group’s operations in Africa. The open outbreak of conflict among rival armed factions that Vladimir Putin sponsors as props of his autocratic regime will now force him to find new managers for his strategy of seeking influence and resources through strongmen and warlords in unstable African countries. These developments open an opportunity for Africans and the West to better illuminate Russia’s corrupt, often brutal methods in Africa, and their consequences.
Donald Jensen on What the NATO Summit Means for Putin
The NATO summit cleared major hurdles for Sweden to join the alliance and offered a consensus for Ukraine’s eventual accession. With Moscow still dealing with the fallout from Prigozhin’s recent uprising, signs indicate that “Putin is now weaker than anybody in the West thought he’d be two months ago,” says USIP’s Donald Jensen.