Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Press
Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
In Memoriam: General Colin Powell
The Taliban find themselves on the wrong side of an insurgency - The Economist
As soon as the first gunshots echoed across the courtyard from the street outside, the congregation began to scatter. The worshippers at Kandahar’s Bibi Fatima mosque were all too aware of the fate of their fellow Shia Muslims in Kunduz a week earlier and immediately started running. The warning came too late. Suicide-bombers had shot their way into the building. Seconds later a cloud of dust engulfed the scene as they blew themselves up...
"Russia, Ukraine, and a Biden Doctrine" at the TCFR - Tulsa Public Radio
Our guest is Ambassador William B. Taylor, who is Vice President of Strategic Stability and Security at the U.S. Institute of Peace. From June 2019 to January 2020, he served as chargé d’affaires and acting ambassador at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv. He also served as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009. A longtime expert on, and participant in, the U.S. government's foreign service, Ambassador Taylor recently gave an address at the Tulsa Committee on Foreign Relations (TCFR) titled "Russia, Ukraine, and a Biden Doctrine."
Keith Mines on Secretary Blinken’s Trip to Colombia - SiriusXM
As Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels to Colombia, USIP’s Keith Mines notes there is still work to be done in implementing and expanding the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC insurgency, saying that “consolidating the peace in a place like Colombia was almost as hard as fighting the war itself.”
Blinken Holding Final Day of Talks in Colombia - Voice of America
The United States and Colombia are holding high-level talks Thursday as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wraps up a trip to the region that has included a focus on migration policy and upholding democracy. Blinken told reporters Wednesday after meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque that the two countries have many areas of potential cooperation, including in sectors such as cloud computing, health technology and agriculture...
Blinken Accents Democracy, Migration in Visits to Ecuador, Colombia - Voice of America
The United States is asking countries in the Western Hemisphere to step up pledges to tackle the immediate challenges of irregular migration as it expands eligibility for legal migration to the U.S. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks Wednesday with more than a dozen officials from Latin America at a regional migration ministerial in Bogota, Colombia. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas joined the gathering virtually...
Taliban Commander Who Launched Bombings in Kabul Is Now a Police Chief in Charge of Security - The Wall Street Journal
Mawlawi Zubair Mutmaeen used to run Taliban suicide-bombing squads in Kabul. On a recent day, in his new role as police chief for one of the Afghan capital’s districts, he was busy mediating a marital dispute. A woman clad in a burqa complained she could no longer live with her interfering mother-in-law. Clearly used to being in command, Mr. Mutmaeen lectured the husband that under Islamic law he must provide his wife with “shelter and other basic necessities.”
Blinken Makes Push for Democracy in South America - Voice of America
Antony Blinken is making a major push for democracy on his first journey to South America as U.S. secretary of state, visiting two stable democracies, Ecuador and Colombia, at a time of rising violence, authoritarianism and populism in the region. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports...
In Haiti, armed gangs tax the poor, extort the rich and do the bidding of the powerful - The Miami Herald
Wearing the required white suit and black tie of Haitian leaders, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, a former cop turned wanted gang leader, walked up Sunday to the monument commemorating the assassination of the founding father of the nation, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and placed the traditional wreath at its feet before giving a military salute...
USIP Announces Josephine Ekiru as the 2021 Women Building Peace Award Recipient
(Washington, D.C.) – The U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) is proud to announce Ms. Josephine Ekiru of Kenya as the recipient of the Institute’s 2021 Women Building Peace Award.
As Arab states normalise with Assad, US faces ‘dilemma’ in Syria - Al Jazeera
Absent an unforeseen event, experts say Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is not going to lose his grip on power any time soon – something that is moving many Arab countries to normalise relations with the government in Damascus. Thousands of kilometres away in Washington, DC, United States policy on Syria has become a balancing act between maintaining a rejection of Assad while pursuing “realistic” goals in the region...