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.
Earlier this month, tensions between Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s national government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a rival political party that controls the Tigray region in the north, escalated into catastrophic violence. To-date, more than 40,000 civilians...
Over the past four years, the Trump administration took bold actions to initiate negotiations between the Kabul government and the Taliban insurgency. For the first time since the Afghanistan conflict began more than 40 years ago, an Afghan government began talking to its main insurgent rival about creating a foundation for a stable future. Thanks to this diplomatic initiative, the pressing question about the U.S. presence in Afghanistan is no longer about winning an “endless war” but about brokering a lasting peace.
Ambassador David Shinn, former Ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, currently professor of International Affairs at George Washington University, and Susan Stigant, Director of Africa Programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace, discuss with host Carol Castiel the major factors which...
The U.S. president is making some of his final foreign policy decisions before leaving office. Donald Trump has made further cuts to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even Republican leaders say the move could risk security in the region...
More attacks on civilians in Ethiopia's civil war with a report out today that an airstrike hit a school in the northern Tigray region. Seventeen U.S. Senators have sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to speak to Tigray leader Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed himself to...
In announcing thousands of troops would be pulled out of Afghanistan, President Donald Trump was meeting the mood of the United States but also opening the door to growing, if still limited, influence by US adversaries, experts say. Iran, China, Russia, Pakistan and India all...
Gashaw Koye, a 42-year-old farmer from Amhara dressed in crisp new battle fatigues, met his wife from the neighbouring region of Tigray more than two decades ago. Now, as part of an army mustered by Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, he is preparing to fight...
Violence is escalating in Ethiopia, where a leader once lauded internationally for his reform agenda and forging peace with neighboring Eritrea faces the specter of civil war. This month, long-simmering tensions between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government in Addis Ababa and...
A little war in the Caucasus has opened a big window into the future of conflict. With the strategic importance of drones and the reaffirmation of Russia’s grip over its own backyard, the bloody faceoff between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the hotly long-contested...
America’s large military presence in Afghanistan may be finally coming to an end after almost 20 years at war. Decisions on when and how the U.S. will significantly reduce its presence will play out early next year, national security analysts say. Almost 800,000 U.S. troops have...