Keith Mines is a senior advisor for Colombia and Venezuela in USIP’s Applied Conflict Transformation Center.

Mr. Mines joined USIP after a career at the State Department, where he was most recently director for Andean and Venezuelan affairs. In 32 years of diplomatic and military service, he has worked on governance and institution building in Central America; Middle East peace in Israel and the West Bank; post-conflict stabilization in Haiti, Iraq, and Afghanistan; global financial stability and the environment in Brazil; NATO expansion in Hungary; famine relief and tribal reconciliation in Darfur and Somali; and creating a culture of lawfulness as the first director of the Merida Initiative in Mexico City.

A frequent contributor to publications such as the Foreign Service Journal and Orbis, Mr. Mines has written extensively on post-conflict stabilization, measures short of war, and the roots of civil conflict. His book, “Why Nation Building Matters: Political Consolidation, Building Security Forces, and Economic Development in Failed and Fragile States” is due out in August 2020 by the University of Nebraska Press. Mr. Mines has a bachelor’s in history from Brigham Young University and a master’s in foreign service from Georgetown University.