For Immediate Release, November 2, 2009
Contact: Lauren Sucher, 202/429-3822

(Washington, D.C.) - The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) has named Beth Ellen Cole to the newly created post of Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, effective November 2, 2009. Ms. Cole has been at the forefront of managing USIP’s relationships with U.S. federal agencies, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations on a wide range of issues. Most recently, Cole was lead writer of the first civilian "doctrine" ever produced, "Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction," released in October 2009.

Beth Cole has served as a senior program officer in USIP's Center for Peace and Stability Operations from 2004 to 2009. In her new post at USIP, Cole will act as chief coordinator of USIP's external relations with senior level officials at the White House, State Department, Defense Department, and other non-legislative agencies, intergovernmental organizations such as the U.N. and non-governmental organizations.

"USIP is a partnership organization and as global challenges rise, those partnerships are expanding exponentially," said Richard H. Solomon, USIP president. "Beth Cole's expertise in managing relationships across the wide peacebuilding community makes her the right person to assume this new role at this time for USIP."

In addition to leading the civilian "doctrine" initiative, Cole has worked to build other civilian capacity components such as interagency planning and coordination, training and education and building a deployable civilian response corps. Ms. Cole led USIP's Afghanistan Security Mapping Project that produced a detailed analysis of threats in Afghanistan and assistance programs designed to meet those threats early in 2009. Cole also co-chairs the USIP-hosted Working Group on Civil-Military Relations in Non-Permissive Environments, an ongoing forum for the U.S. armed forces, U.S. government agencies and U.S. humanitarian assistance organizations. She is USIP's official liaison to the U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute.

Among other past posts, Cole was director of the Congressional Roundtable on Post-Cold War Relations in the U.S. Congress and a senior fellow at George Mason University's Program on Peacekeeping Policy. Cole was a co-author of the RAND book, "The Beginner's Guide to Nation-Building" (January 2007). Cole also served in positions at the Congressional Research Service and the U.S. Department of State working on arms control treaty issues and was executive director of several non-governmental organizations, including the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and the Peace Through Law Education Fund.