Preserving Stability Amidst Regional Conflagration: US-Jordan 2011-2016

Preserving Stability Amidst Regional Conflagration: US-Jordan 2011-2016

Thursday, September 14, 2017

By: Beth Ellen Cole ;  Alexa Courtney;  Erica Kaster;  Noah Sheinbaum

This series of case studies—Burma (2009-2015), Jordan (2011-2016), and the Lake Chad Region (2013-2016)—document efforts and draw lessons from where US government leaders believe deepening crises were staved off through collaborative inter-agency engagement. Part of USIP’s “3D Learning from Complex Crises” project, the cases provide programmatic and operational lessons from complex operating environments. These lessons support systemic integrated approaches to complex crises and will better equip individuals to share objectives when working in inter-agency environments.

Type: Tools for Peacebuilding

Civilian-Military RelationsFragility & ResilienceMediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

From Pariah to Partner: The US Integrated Reform Mission in Burma

From Pariah to Partner: The US Integrated Reform Mission in Burma

Thursday, September 14, 2017

By: Beth Ellen Cole;  Alexa Courtney;  Erica Kaster;  Noah Sheinbaum

This series of case studies—Burma (2009-2015), Jordan (2011-2016), and the Lake Chad Region (2013-2016)—document efforts and draw lessons from where US government leaders believe deepening crises were staved off through collaborative inter-agency engagement. Part of USIP’s “3D Learning from Complex Crises” project, the cases provide programmatic and operational lessons from complex operating environments. These lessons support systemic integrated approaches to complex crises and will better equip individuals to share objectives when working in inter-agency environments.

Type: Tools for Peacebuilding

Civilian-Military RelationsFragility & ResilienceMediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

Lake Chad Exercise Demonstrates New Civilian-Military Approach

Lake Chad Exercise Demonstrates New Civilian-Military Approach

Friday, July 7, 2017

By: Ann L. Phillips, Ph.D.;  Jim Ruf

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...

Type: Analysis

Civilian-Military RelationsFragility & Resilience

The Military’s Role in Countering Violent Extremism

The Military’s Role in Countering Violent Extremism

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

By: Edward Powers

The U.S. military, through its stabilizing mission, has a role to play in countering and eliminating the drivers of violent extremism (VE). Though the military has effective counterterrorism (CT) capability, there is a gap in its counter-VE (CVE) strategies that can be closed by linking reactive CT operations to preventative efforts to remove the drivers of VE. ...

Type: Peace Brief

Violent ExtremismCivilian-Military Relations

U.S. Afghanistan Veterans Recall the Costs of War

U.S. Afghanistan Veterans Recall the Costs of War

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

By: USIP Staff

When we estimate the costs of wars, our guesses can render figures too vast and numbing to really grasp. Brown University’s Costs of War project estimates that wars since 2001 involving U.S. forces have cost $4.8 trillion, 370,000 people killed in direct violence and nearly 1.2 million dead when indirect causes are counted. At the U.S. Institute of Peace on Feb. 22, a prominent journalist and U.S. combat veterans focused on a tiny but dramatic subset of costs—the price paid by these former soldiers when they were sent a decade ago to a perilous corner of Afghanistan.

Type: Analysis

Civilian-Military Relations

Violent Conflict and Vital Interests: Keeping Focus

Violent Conflict and Vital Interests: Keeping Focus

Thursday, February 16, 2017

By: Fred Strasser

Over the next decade, the United States can expect to face complex foreign challenges from terrorism, insurgencies and internal conflicts fanned by external sponsorship, but the threat of conventional state-on-state wars, including direct assaults on the American homeland, have significantly diminished, according to retired Lt. General Douglas Lute, the former ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Type: Analysis

Global PolicyConflict Analysis & PreventionCivilian-Military Relations

Nigerian Governors Set to Discuss Paths to Progress

Nigerian Governors Set to Discuss Paths to Progress

Thursday, October 13, 2016

By: Fred Strasser

The urgent challenges for Nigeria’s powerful northern state governors range from addressing a humanitarian crisis sparked by Boko Haram’s insurgency to boosting economic growth with alternatives such as agriculture to make up for declining oil revenue, Johnnie Carson, a senior advisor at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said ahead of a governors’ symposium to be held at the Institute next week. 

Type: Analysis

Violent ExtremismEnvironmentCivilian-Military RelationsEconomics

Countering Militancy and Terrorism in Pakistan: The Civil-Military Nexus

Countering Militancy and Terrorism in Pakistan: The Civil-Military Nexus

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

By: Shuja Nawaz

Based on interviews with civil and military officials and politicians, this report details the poor governance and imbalance of power in Pakistan and offers key recommendations for the military, civilian institutions, parliament, and civil society to achieve the goals and objectives outlined in Pakistan’s National Action Plan (NAP). The need for an assessment of the National Internal Security Policy and subsequent NAP became evident as the heightened military action under Operation Zarb-e-Azb...

Type: Special Report

Violent ExtremismJustice, Security & Rule of LawCivilian-Military Relations

Afghanistan’s Lesson: Strategic Costs of Civilian Harm

Afghanistan’s Lesson: Strategic Costs of Civilian Harm

Thursday, June 16, 2016

By: Fred Strasser

After 15 years of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, the strategic importance of avoiding harm to civilians is an inescapable lesson that policymakers need to fully integrate in American doctrine, planning and training, say the authors of a new report. The report offers “practical, pragmatic, concrete recommendations” to strengthen U.S. military operations overseas by averting losses to civilians and their communities, said former Undersecretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy in a public d...

Type: Analysis

Justice, Security & Rule of LawHuman RightsCivilian-Military Relations