The United States Institute of Peace and the Middle East Institute cosponsored a Current Issues Briefing to explore the regional and security ramifications of the Taliban movement's consolidation of power in Afghanistan. After twenty years of war that has ravaged Afghanistan, peace remains elusive, and leaders in adjacent countries and the international community face a dearth of options. In addition to persistent and credible reports of abysmal human rights violations in Afghanistan, the cou...

Type: Special Report

Religion

An unwillingness to challenge North Korea now with a more concerted diplomatic and deterrence policy, lest it precipitate a repeat of the 1994 crisis, risks being confronted later by a qualitatively different North Korean military threat. There is a significant danger of miscalculation: while previous North Korean induced crises have strengthened Pyongyang's negotiating leverage in general and perhaps the Korean People's Army's strong hold on power in particular, there is a serious risk that ...

Type: Special Report

In summer 1997, a team of four Somali intellectuals and two American Africanists spent three weeks in Somalia on behalf of the United States Institute of Peace.  The purpose of the visit was to assess the present circumstances and future prospects for peace and reconciliation in Somalia and to recommend how it might be appropriate for the United States, working with colleagues and institutions in Somalia and neighboring countries as well as within the larger donor community, to play a constru...

Type: Peaceworks

The exchange of summits between the leaders of the People's Republic of China and the United States, the Asian financial crisis, and the decision by India and Pakistan to engage in nuclear testing have redirected the security agenda of the Asia-Pacific region. Such developments underscore the ongoing difficulties inherent in the transition from traditional approaches to security defined by the Cold War to a post-Cold War structure of international relations in the Asia-Pacific.

Type: Special Report

Recognizing that Bosnia cannot exist as a viable, democratic state unless it is embedded in a region that is itself stable and democratic, the Institute has begun a Bosnia in the Balkans Initiative to explore the prospects for regional political and economic development.  The Balkans Working Group on "Croatia After Tudjman" met in order to understand longer term factors that might affect regional stability.  The recent meeting on Croatia is one component of this work, which has included separ...

Type: Special Report

Among the most significant political reforms implemented by the Chinese government since 1989 is the introduction of competitive elections into rural villages. This study, based largely on fieldwork conducted between 1995 and 1997, examines China's efforts to bring competitive elections to the country's rural areas and attempts to explain why local democracy has proved more successful in some places than in others.

Type: Peaceworks