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Prioritizing Peace During the Pandemic

COVID and Conflict

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As the coronavirus pandemic causes global disruption, USIP knows what it means to adapt our expertise and resources to match the ever-shifting nature of peacebuilding. Throughout our 35 years, we've helped lead the way on matters of peace and conflict and are committed to making peace possible amid the new reality of COVID-19.

Read stories of resilience from USIP's global network of peacebuilders »

People march in Beirut to honor those killed when a deadly explosion ripped through the heart of the city. Aug. 11, 2020. (Diego Ibarra Sanchez/The New York Times)

October 15, 2020

The Beirut Blast Has Yet to Spark Political Reform by Elie Abouaoun and Osama Gharizi
Iraqi border police at the Zurbatiya border crossing with Iran, Monday, March 9, 2020. (Ivor Prickett/The New York Times)

August 26, 2020

Conflict Prevention in the COVID Era: Why the U.S. Cannot Afford to Go it Alone by Corinne Graff and Laura E. Bailey
A nearly empty street market in Lagos, Nigeria, April 12, 2020. (Yagazie Emezi/The New York Times)

August 18, 2020

Is Insecurity Undermining the Coronavirus Response? Evidence from Nigeria but Aly Verjee
Medics receive casualties at the Al Razi hospital in government-controlled Aleppo, Syria, April 28, 2016. (Declan Walsh/ The New York Times)

August 5, 2020

Coronavirus Throws Another Challenge at Syria’s Doctors by Anthony Navone
Secretary-General António Guterres visits the Democratic Republic of the Congo to take stock of and mobilize additional support for the response to the Ebola outbreak, Sept. 1, 2019. (UN Photo/Martine Perret)

July 23, 2020

Amid COVID, We Need Enhanced International Coordination to Build Peace by Jonathan Papoulidis, Corinne Graff and Beckelman
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for a global cease-fire to combat COVID back on March 23. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)

July 8, 2020

U.N. Finally Endorses a COVID Cease-fire: Will it Make a Difference? by Tyler Beckelman and Amanda Long
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, at his office in Harare in 2019, dismisses assertions by Zimbabwean and international human rights organizations that he has sustained the state’s historic pattern of abuses. (Zinyange Auntony/The New York Times)

June 24, 2020

COVID Raises the Stakes for Zimbabwe’s Civil Society Movement by Miranda Rivers and Precious Ndlovu
A woman passes through a sanitizing tunnel in Mumbai. April 25, 2020. (Atul Loke/The New York Times)

June 22, 2020

Coronavirus Tightens its Grip on South Asia by Ashish Kumar Sen

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Past Events

Health workers entering the Dharavi slum to conduct contact tracing and quarantining people who came into contact with a coronavirus patient in Mumbai, April 28, 2020. (Atul Loke/The New York Times)

COVID in South Asia: Regional Responses

Recorded June 17, 2020

USIP and experts from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka discuss states' responses to the coronavirus pandemic across the region and what countries can do to maintain and restore their economies, health systems, and citizens’ trust in elected officials.

People visit a statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela in Pretoria, South Africa. (Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times)

Harnessing Coronavirus for a Peaceful and Prosperous Africa

Recorded May 27, 2020

Representatives of the African Union Commission and the African Diplomatic Corps, and other experts discuss the African Union’s efforts to mobilize the fight against coronavirus while still alleviating threats to human security and international peace. 

A flash mob organized by Mutual-Aid Space, a group organized to help the needy, outside a building the group has occupied in Milan, Saturday, April 25, 2020. (Alessandro Grassani/The New York Times)

People Power in a Pandemic: How Movements are Confronting COVID

Recorded May 19, 2020

Activists and peacebuilders from South Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela discuss how nonviolent movements are confronting and adjusting to their new operating environments, how they are spreading awareness about the virus and safety measures in their communities, and how they envision the post-coronavirus era in their societies.  

The Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge that connects North Korea to China, in Dandong, China. (Lam Yik Fei/The New York Times)

The Impact of Coronavirus on North Korea

Recorded April 14, 2020

View the webcast from USIP's online discussion with experts on the latest information regarding the COVID-19 situation in North Korea, the impact of COVID-19 on North Korea’s isolation vis-à-vis the international sanctions regime, the potential for instability in North Korean society, and the potential for sanctions relief to aid coronavirus response efforts.

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Coronavirus Shows Why Libya Needs to Build its Institutions

Coronavirus Shows Why Libya Needs to Build its Institutions

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

By: Nate Wilson

Even before the coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe, Libya’s health system—like many of the country’s institutions—was in crisis. The country’s public health infrastructure has been neglected since the 2011 uprising and even before it was in need of a fundamental overhaul. On top of that, many of the foreign medics in Libya fled following the conflict in 2011 and have not returned.

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Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen on Israel’s Political Turmoil and the Coronavirus Crisis

Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen on Israel’s Political Turmoil and the Coronavirus Crisis

Thursday, April 9, 2020

By: Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen

After three elections, Israel’s political crisis is reportedly coming to an end. Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen explains that the focus has now shifted to the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying, “What you do often see in the face of these immediate crises is a lot of banding together and cooperation … the question is how long it holds afterwards.”

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The Coronavirus is a Call To Build Resilience in Fragile States

The Coronavirus is a Call To Build Resilience in Fragile States

Thursday, April 9, 2020

As more developed nations have struggled desperately to contain and manage the COVID-19 pandemic, the specter of the virus rolling through the more fragile countries in the Sahel, Horn of Africa, and parts of the Middle East is a terrifying, slow-motion train wreck with the potential to trigger a devastating multidimensional-tiered health, economic, political, and security crisis. It also provides an urgent call to action to do things differently in fragile states so they can recover better.

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Venezuela: Could the Coronavirus Threat Be an Opportunity?

Venezuela: Could the Coronavirus Threat Be an Opportunity?

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

By: Keith Mines;  Steve Hege

Helping Venezuela resolve its political crisis will be vital to containing the potentially catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic there. A truce in the country’s power struggle is urgent, and last week’s U.S. proposal for a transitional government offers useful ideas, even for a naturally skeptical governing regime. Advancing them would benefit from mediation, perhaps by the Vatican or the United Nations, and will require cooperation among the major powers—the United States, Russia and China—involved in the crisis. If Venezuelans and outsiders can join against the common human threat of coronavirus, that could lay foundations for an eventual political solution to the decade of turmoil that has brewed the hemisphere’s worst humanitarian disaster.

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Philippines: Former Combatants Help Keep the Peace During Recent Polls

Philippines: Former Combatants Help Keep the Peace During Recent Polls

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

By: Haroro Ingram, Country Director, Philippines, USIP

For decades, the struggle for peace in the Philippines’ southernmost island of Mindanao has been characterized by armed conflict between the Philippines government and Moro separatist groups, like the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and cycles of failed peace processes. The historic 2014 peace agreement between the Philippines government and MILF led to the granting of greater self-governance with the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) five years later. What has followed since is an unprecedented, yet very fragile, period of peace and stability.

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With Cease-fire Holding, Can Israel and Iran Move Toward De-escalation?

With Cease-fire Holding, Can Israel and Iran Move Toward De-escalation?

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

By: Sarhang Hamasaeed, Acting Vice President, Middle East and North Africa, USIP

Israel’s stunning and sophisticated June 13 attack on Iran set off a worrying 12-day escalatory spiral. Iran responded in short order with ballistic missile and drone strikes, which led to a series of tit-for-tat exchanges between the two sides. A cease-fire is now in place -- but will it hold?

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What Are the Limits of U.S.-India Security Burden-Sharing in the Indian Ocean?

What Are the Limits of U.S.-India Security Burden-Sharing in the Indian Ocean?

Monday, June 23, 2025

By: Nilanthi Samaranayake, Adjunct Fellow, East-West Center

When viewing U.S. partnerships in the maritime domain, relations with India, in particular, have thrived — especially over the past decade. Moreover, the partnership enjoys bipartisan support in the United States. Indications after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House in February 2025 are that U.S.-India security relations will continue to be strong in the second Trump administration.

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What’s at Stake for China in the Iran War?

What’s at Stake for China in the Iran War?

Monday, June 23, 2025

By: Adam Gallagher, Editor in Chief, USIP

China has major energy and economic interests that are threatened by an escalating conflict. But Beijing may also see some strategic opportunities with the U.S. focused on the war. Ultimately, China is likely unwilling, and unable, to make a serious effort to broker peace.

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The Element of Surprise: Space and Cyber Warfare in U.S.-China Rivalry

The Element of Surprise: Space and Cyber Warfare in U.S.-China Rivalry

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

By: Dean Cheng

The 2024 revelations over China’s effort to implant malware in critical U.S. infrastructure by the Volt Typhoon hacking group — as well as the Salt Typhoon group’s successful breaching of at least nine major U.S. telecoms — have renewed concern over Beijing’s constant, ongoing efforts to hack Western companies, governments and non-governmental organizations. Unlike past incidents, like those involving Chinese military unit 61398, which were largely about cyber espionage, the Volt Typhoon group was actively implanting malware designed to disrupt critical infrastructure such as water and power systems.

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