Why the U.S. Needs a Special Envoy for the Red Sea

Why the U.S. Needs a Special Envoy for the Red Sea

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

By: Payton Knopf

The Trump administration has appointed four special envoys to coordinate U.S. policy toward key hot spots: Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Afghanistan. Yet in the Red Sea—one of the most volatile and lethal regions of the world afflicted by several interconnected conflicts and rivalries that pose significant challenges to American interests—U.S. policy has been rudderless in large part due to the absence of a similar post.

Type: Analysis

Global PolicyConflict Analysis & Prevention

Q&A: Sudan, South Sudan Wars--Special Envoy Needed?

Q&A: Sudan, South Sudan Wars--Special Envoy Needed?

Thursday, September 14, 2017

By: Payton Knopf;  Aly Verjee;  Princeton N. Lyman

As the war in South Sudan rages on, its dynamics are influenced by events across the border in Sudan and by the policies of neighboring countries, regional groups and the broader international community, notably the U.S. It’s just the kind of situation that cries out for an American diplomat with the stature and the ability to work across borders to help resolve the myriad conflicts underlying the fighting, according to former Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan Princeton Lyman and two other former diplomats.

Type: Analysis

Global PolicyMediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

Ethiopia’s Worsening Crisis Threatens Regional, Middle East Security

Ethiopia’s Worsening Crisis Threatens Regional, Middle East Security

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

By: Payton Knopf;  Jeffrey Feltman

The Gulf Arabs recognize a strategic reality that has eluded the stove-piped U.S. foreign and security policy bureaucracy for too long: The Horn of Africa is an integral part of the Middle East’s security landscape, and increasingly so. No country demonstrates this more clearly than Ethiopia. That country’s escalating internal crises pose an increasingly grave threat not only to the country’s citizens but to international peace and security and to the interests of the United States and its partners in the Middle East, principally Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

Normalizing Sudan-Israel Relations Now is a Dangerous Game

Normalizing Sudan-Israel Relations Now is a Dangerous Game

Thursday, September 24, 2020

By: Payton Knopf;  Jeffrey Feltman

With the UAE and Bahrain having joined Egypt and Jordan in declaring peace with Israel, those asking “who’s next?” often look enthusiastically westward, toward Khartoum. Adding new chapters to the Abraham Accords is in the U.S. interest, but so is a successful transition in Sudan. And the sequence of these steps is critical. A unified Sudanese government with a popular mandate will be better able to forge a warm and sustainable peace with Israel, whereas a rushed Israeli-Sudanese agreement has the potential to unravel Sudan’s transition and generate renewed support for Sudan’s Islamists and their foreign backers.

Type: Analysis

Democracy & GovernanceGlobal Policy

South Sudan: Looming Genocide, Plans for Prevention

South Sudan: Looming Genocide, Plans for Prevention

Thursday, December 15, 2016

By: Fred Strasser

The likelihood that South Sudan will descend into genocide and mass starvation is growing by the day, say diplomats, advocates and journalists familiar with the central African nation. Violence has spread to previously peaceful regions, propelled by a political breakdown that increasingly is becoming a clash of ethnic groups. Efforts to mediate between the government and the armed opposition have collapsed. Action by the U.S. and the international community is needed urgently to prevent furth...

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & PreventionHuman RightsFragility & ResilienceDemocracy & Governance

What Ethiopia’s Brewing Conflict Means for the Country—and the Region

What Ethiopia’s Brewing Conflict Means for the Country—and the Region

Thursday, November 12, 2020

By: Aly Verjee;  Susan Stigant

Violent conflict between the federal government of Ethiopia and the federal state of Tigray, in the country’s north, began November 4 and quickly escalated. USIP’s Aly Verjee and Susan Stigant discuss the crisis and identify what could be done to avoid further violent conflict in east Africa’s most populous country.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention