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United States Institute of Peace

Susan Stigant

Director of Africa Programs

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Please submit all media inquiries to interviews@usip.org or call 202.429.3869.

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Susan Stigant is the director of Africa Programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace where she leads programming in East Africa and the Greater Horn, on the Red Sea Arena and with the African Union. Her thematic focus is on the design and implementation of inclusive constitutional reform and national dialogue processes.

Prior to joining USIP, Stigant managed constitutional development, citizen engagement and election observation programs with the National Democratic Institute (NDI). From 2005-2011, she served as program director with NDI in Southern Sudan, where she supported the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. She also worked with the Forum of Federations on comparative federalism and with the research unit of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament in South Africa.

Publications By Susan

The Red Sea Crisis Goes Beyond the Houthis

The Red Sea Crisis Goes Beyond the Houthis

Friday, July 19, 2024

By: Ambassador Johnnie Carson;  Alex Rondos;  Susan Stigant;  Michael Woldemariam

The Red Sea is in crisis. At the center of the storm are Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have unleashed a wave of attacks on ships traversing one of the world’s most pivotal maritime straits, putatively in support of Hamas’s war against Israel. The Houthi gambit in the Red Sea is imposing serious costs on global trade, as did the problem of Somali piracy, which reached its peak in 2010. The United States and some of its allies have stepped in to militarily suppress the threat, bombing Houthi positions inside Yemen. But although this episode is illustrative of the difficulties of Red Sea security, the crisis extends far beyond the trouble emanating from Yemen.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

Four Priorities for Sudan a Year into the Civil War

Four Priorities for Sudan a Year into the Civil War

Thursday, April 18, 2024

By: Susan Stigant

This week marks a year of war in Sudan. A once promising revolution that led to the overthrow in 2019 of the country’s longtime dictator, Omar al-Bashir, has devolved into a devastating civil war. The fighting started over a dispute on how to incorporate the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) into the country’s military, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). A year later as the conflict between the RSF and SAF grinds on, Sudan is experiencing the world’s worst displacement crisis and one of the world’s worst hunger crises in recent history.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy;  Peace Processes

Susan Stigant on the Recent Crises in the Red Sea

Susan Stigant on the Recent Crises in the Red Sea

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

By: Susan Stigant

While the U.S. tends to separate its policies on Africa and Middle East, USIP’s Susan Stigant says recent crises in the Red Sea highlight that “this is really an interconnected space” that currently lacks “any infrastructure … that connects together those who are making decisions” along the sea’s eastern and western shores.

Type: Podcast

Houthi Attacks in the Red Sea Disrupt Global Supply Chains

Houthi Attacks in the Red Sea Disrupt Global Supply Chains

Friday, December 22, 2023

By: Susan Stigant

Drone and missile attacks by Yemen-based, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea have disrupted global supply chains. The United States has responded to these attacks by shooting down Houthi drones, and the Biden administration has set up a 10-nation naval task force to protect ships traveling along this important route.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

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