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.
Months of demonstrations calling for the ouster of longtime authoritarian strongman Alexander Lukashenko had raised hopes for a democratic uprising in Belarus, a country of roughly 10 million people located in the tense geopolitical battleground between...
On October 6, news of a $50 million dollar investment to build a port in the Laotian town of Ban Mom led the business section of the Vientiane Times, a prominent state-run newspaper. In the second paragraph, readers were told that a man named Zhao Wei participated in...
Reports that Eritrea has sent troops over the border into Ethiopia to help fight rebellious forces in Tigray have fuelled fears of wider instability in the Horn of Africa. Both nations’ governments deny any Eritrean involvement in the fighting which started on Nov. 4 between...
"War makes for bitter men. Heartless and savage men," Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said when he received the Nobel Peace Prize less than a year ago - only for him to now wage a military operation in his own country. Over about a three-week period, his...
Early next year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is expected to present the new Joe Biden administration with a provocative housewarming gift, most likely a missile test. This aggressive conversation piece would seek to shift attention back to the Korean Peninsula and...
Ethiopian forces on Thursday blocked people fleeing the country’s embattled Tigray region from crossing into Sudan at the busiest border crossing point for refugees, Sudanese forces said. Their account follows allegations by refugees in previous days of Ethiopian...
Tunisia’s dramatic economic downturn since the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated social and financial woes facing the country, prompting the influential Tunisian General Labour Union, (UGTT) to call on the country’s president, Kais Saied for a National Dialogue to address...
In recognition of the pivotal role women play in building peace, the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) has opened nominations for the 2021 Women Building Peace Award. This annual award, inaugurated in 2020, honors a woman peacebuilder whose substantial and practical contribution to peace is an inspiration and guiding light for future peacebuilders.
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.