Event Extra: The Untold Story of a U.S. Attempt to Forge Israel-Syria Peace

Event Extra: The Untold Story of a U.S. Attempt to Forge Israel-Syria Peace

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

By: Adam Gallagher

In a new USIP book, Ambassador Frederic Hof tells the story of a secret U.S. effort to broker peace between Israel and Syria between 2009-2011. Just as that effort seemed to be making important progress, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime began to violently suppress Syrian protesters, scuttling the chance for peace. Hof discusses what the foundation of Israel-Syria peace would have looked like, the pre-2011 perceptions of Assad as a "reformer," President Biden's trip to the Middle East and how the international community should deal with the Syrian dictator today.

Type: Podcast

Global Policy

Event Extra: Rethinking War Amid the Dire Global Food Crisis

Event Extra: Rethinking War Amid the Dire Global Food Crisis

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

By: Adam Gallagher

Russia’s war in Ukraine has deepened a global food crisis that has left hundreds of millions facing acute hunger. Beyond the humanitarian challenges this crisis presents, it could stoke violence and conflict in fragile regions. U.N. World Food Program Chief Economist Arif Husain discusses the state of global hunger, why it’s vital that we rethink our response to conflict and what can be done in the immediate to stave off the worst.

Type: Podcast

Global HealthEconomics

Event Extra: Syria’s Brutal Civil War and the Elusive Quest for Justice

Event Extra: Syria’s Brutal Civil War and the Elusive Quest for Justice

Monday, November 21, 2022

By: Adam Gallagher

In 2016, the U.N. General Assembly established the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria (IIIM), after vetoes in the U.N. Security Council prevented referral of the Syrian situation to the International Criminal Court. IIIM Head Catherine Marchi-Uhel discusses the obstacles to this work, the progress made to date and what lessons it can provide for delivering accountability and justice in other conflicts.

Type: Podcast

Justice, Security & Rule of Law

Event Extra: Taliban Rule Takes Profound Toll on Afghan Women and Minorities

Event Extra: Taliban Rule Takes Profound Toll on Afghan Women and Minorities

Thursday, August 18, 2022

By: Adam Gallagher

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. Despite pledges of moderation and reform from some Taliban factions, over the last year they have reinstated many of the harshest policies from their 1990s emirate, pushing women out of public life and brooking no dissent. For many Afghans — especially women, girls and ethnic and religious minorities — the threat of violence looms over daily life. U.S. Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls and Human Rights Rina Amiri discusses how Afghans' lives have changes over the last year, what brave Afghan women are doing to protest the rollback of their rights, and how the United States and international community can help.

Type: Podcast

Human Rights

Tunisians Show Support for Democracy, Disillusionment with Ruling Elite

Tunisians Show Support for Democracy, Disillusionment with Ruling Elite

Monday, September 23, 2019

By: Adam Gallagher

The surprise results of Tunisia’s first-round presidential election gave a clear message to the country’s political establishment: Tunisians want change and they want it now. Neither of the two winning candidates set to face off in the second round have ever held political office nor are affiliated with the political parties that have led Tunisia’s transition. Many of the issues that sparked the uprising eight years ago—like corruption and unemployment—continue to bedevil the North African nation. Yet the first-round vote demonstrates that Tunisians aren’t willing to give up on democracy and want new leaders.

Type: Analysis

Democracy & Governance

Is China Preparing to Make a Run at Israeli-Palestinian Peace?

Is China Preparing to Make a Run at Israeli-Palestinian Peace?

Thursday, June 22, 2023

By: Adam Gallagher

Since April of last year, Xi Jinping and China’s foreign policy apparatus have been touting the Chinese leader’s vision of an alternative to the U.S.-led global security order, dubbed the Global Security Initiative (GSI). While Beijing has incrementally elaborated on Xi’s GSI, it remains an inchoate, fuzzy concept. What is clear is that Beijing wants to be seen as a global force for peace and stability that is capable of resolving international issues that appeared intractable under the U.S.-led security order. And it has repeatedly pointed to the detente it brokered between longtime foes Iran and Saudi Arabia as an example of its peacemaking prowess. As China deepens its involvement in the Middle East and campaigns for the GSI, is it gearing up to take on one of the region’s most vexing challenges, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Type: Analysis

Global PolicyPeace Processes

Before the Next Shock, the World Needs a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Food Insecurity

Before the Next Shock, the World Needs a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Food Insecurity

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

By: Adam Gallagher;  Arif Husain, Ph.D.

In recent years, the world has seen a host of interconnected challenges, with a crisis in one part of the world setting off epiphenomenal emergencies elsewhere. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine cut off many countries from their main supply of wheat and coarse grains, disrupting global food supply chains that were already stressed by the COVID pandemic. This led to further food insecurity in regions of the world, like East Africa, that were already dealing with starvation and malnutrition due, in part, to severe drought brought on by climate change.

Type: Analysis

EconomicsGlobal Policy

Water Can Be a Rare Win-Win for Israelis, Palestinians and the Region

Water Can Be a Rare Win-Win for Israelis, Palestinians and the Region

Thursday, December 15, 2022

By: Adam Gallagher

From Israel’s turbulent electoral politics and Palestinian political dysfunction to the cycle of intercommunal violence in the West Bank and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, it’s rare for much good news to come out of the Israeli-Palestinian context these days. But this June, a hopeful story emerged from the impoverished Gaza Strip when its Mediterranean beaches were deemed safe for swimming for the first time in decades.

Type: Analysis

EnvironmentPeace Processes