(Washington, D.C.) – The U.S. Institute of Peace announces Carla Koppell’s appointment as vice president for the Center for Applied Conflict Transformation. In the newly created position, Koppell will set the course for the center, which is focused on the resolution and transformation of violent conflict in fragile states.

Most importantly, perhaps, the Chinese initiative signals China’s rise and a commitment to lasting future engagement with the region. Meanwhile, Cooley said, the “New Silk Road for the U.S. is associated with a legacy of regional withdrawal.” Another speaker, Scott Smith of the U.S. Institute of Peace, was just as critical of the New Silk Road policy, saying that it “is a vision that sometimes masquerades as a policy.”

U.S. Institute of Peace President Nancy Lindborg appeared on Al Jazeera English on March 9, 2016, to discuss the latest events in Syria, including the latest European border closures blocking the routes of Syrian refugees. Lindborg also spoke about the internally displaced within Syria and how the civil war might be resolved. "Let's not let the humanitarian situation continue to deteriorate," she said.

Koppell will lead USIP’s programs on issue areas such as rule of law and religion, as well as grants, research, education, fellowships and training. She will focus on the design, development and piloting of innovative approaches to conflict transformation and peacebuilding.

When armed groups lay down their weapons, women have rarely been part of the conflict negotiations. But in Colombia, where up to 40 percent of leftist rebels are female, women have had a much more prominent role in the anticipated peace agreement between the Colombian government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, who have been engaged in more than a half century of armed conflict.

Wearing a flowing green gown and a string of pearls that hung, flapper-style, below her waist, Narges Mousavi was married Friday, in Tehran. The bride, a painter, was born into the revolutionary élite. Her father, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, was Iran’s Prime Minister for eight years.

Beth Cole, a special adviser on violent extremism at the U.S. Institute of Peace, told CQ she liked much of what she was hearing about Lumpkin’s strategy for the Global Engagement Center. She said it was critical for the safety of local actors including citizen journalists, local nongovernmental organizations and sympathetic religious leaders that any aid from Washington be channeled through intermediaries such as larger nonprofits, so as not to expose them for accepting funding from the U.S....

A bomb exploded at an airport checkpoint in Somalia on Monday. But it's what the bomb was in that has the United States worried. The bomb was hidden in a laptop computer and shattered windows at the small airport north of the Somali capitol Mogadishu.