Our guest on this episode is USIP Research Fellow, Zinaida Besirevic, a Ph.D. candidate in human development and cognition at the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation compares children and adults in their reasoning about violations of Human Rights and infringements on human dignity. Together we discuss if moral reasoning changes with development, and whether and why we become more likely to tolerate harm.
USIP’s Conflict Management Training for Peacekeepers (CMTP) program trains uniform members of national militaries who serve in international and regional peacekeeping missions. The training aims to improve mission effectiveness and bolster trust in the mission by focusing on skills and knowledge that enhance professional conduct among troops. The program, which began in 2008, is implemented in partnership with the Department of State’s Global Peace Operations Initiative in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
USIP’s Border Security Training Program (BSTP) trains police officers from Kenya’s Border Police Unit (BPU) and General Service Unit (GSU) who are serving on al-Shabaab’s major transit corridor along the Kenya-Somalia border. The program, which began in 2017, is implemented in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Counterterrorism and equips Kenyan police with the skills to better understand the civilian environment and cultivate relationships in order to more effectively achieve their mission and counter terrorist activity.
In a historic development, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution in December that included a call for Indigenous people’s inclusion in “peace agreement negotiations, transitional justice processes, conflict resolution, mediation and constructive arrangements.”
The U.S. government has concluded that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces committed acts of genocide in Sudan after reviewing overwhelming evidence of the group’s mounting atrocities, which include the systemic targeting of women and children, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Former U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello discusses how this designation permanently delegitimizes the RSF and its leadership, its impact on the ongoing civil war, and how the international community can elevate the voices of Sudanese people seeking a return to peace and democratic governance.