The 2016-17 United States Institute of Peace (USIP) cohort of Peace Teachers met in person for the first time at the USIP headquarters in Washington July 10 to share their experiences with teaching global peacebuilding skills to teens and pre-teens across the country. The Peace Teachers program is one of several education initiatives offered by USIP, a nonpartisan institute seeking to prevent and reduce violent conflict around the world. For the second year now, the program has connected a small group of middle and high school teachers with the training, resources, and support necessary to bring concepts of peace and conflict resolution to the classroom.

Exactly three years after it was declared, the Islamic State is now near defeat. The Iraqi Army has liberated Mosul, the largest city under ISIS control, while a Syrian militia has penetrated the Old City section of Raqqa, the capital of the pseudo-caliphate. U.S. air strikes—at a cost of more than thirteen million dollars a day—plus Army advisers and teams of Special Forces were pivotal in both campaigns, launched late last fall. But it is far too soon to celebrate. Since the rise of jihadi extremism four decades ago, its most enduring trait, through ever-evolving manifestations, is its ability to reinvent and revive movements that appeared beaten.

Nearly 16 years after the international intervention toppled the Taliban government, war rages in Afghanistan. A gradual but steady deterioration in security — including the massive sewage truck bomb that recently killed 150 civilians in Kabul recently — has leaders inside and outside Afghanistan once again searching for a new strategy.

Princeton Lyman, a former U.S. envoy for Sudan now at the U.S. Institute of Peace, says he thinks the diplomatic approach is working — using sanctions relief as leverage. "This is a very preliminary, first-step opening in a serious dialogue opening with Sudan," he says.

William B. Taylor spoke to SiriusXM POTUS Ch. 124 on the eve of President Trump meeting with President Putin in Hamburg, Germany, as part of the G-20 gathering. Taylor expressed reservations about the president to president dialogue versus other officials meeting given the level of Russia interference in the U.S. elections, continuing occupation of the Crimea and cyber attacks.