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.
Jonas Claes spoke to SiriusXM POTUS Ch. 124 about the Kenya Supreme Court’s nullification of the presidential election. Claes discussed the surprise decision and strong message it sent while remaining cautiously optimistic that the challenges to the election went through the court rather than violence on the streets as in the past.
Derek Mitchell was the US ambassador to Myanmar from 2012 until 2016 and he worked closely with the country's de facto leader, Aung San Syu Chi, during this time. He gives us his assessment of her handling of the current crisis with the Rohingyas.
Then, we’ll talk about what U.S. policy has been in dealing with this humanitarian crisis and what options are on the table when we speak with DEREK MITCHELL, former Ambassador to Burma under President Obama and Senior Advisor to the Asia Center at the United States Institute of Peace.
Over the past half century, the United States has fought only one big war—in Kuwait, in 1991—that was a conventional conflict. Operation Desert Storm launched a U.S.-led coalition against the Iraqi Army after it occupied oil-rich Kuwait. The combat was quick (six weeks) and successful in its limited goal: expelling Saddam Hussein’s forces from the small Gulf sheikhdom. Fewer than a hundred and fifty Americans died in battle.
The Institute of Peace’s work alleviates strain on the U.S. government by conducting on-the-ground research to develop best practices in aid and development. It is a “do-tank” that puts policy into action. The Heritage Foundation and the Institute of Peace work closely together, brainstorming solutions to religious freedom challenges, persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Burma, and extremism in Pakistan.
But Priscilla Clapp, who was U.S. chief of mission in Myanmar from 1999 to 2002 and is now a senior advisor at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said she objects to extreme words like genocide, holocaust, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, “because that is not what this is. This is not Yugoslavia.” Many groups on both sides of the conflict are working “very quietly” in Myanmar to resolve it, Clapp recently told a reporter for Claremont McKenna College’s website.
Priscilla Clapp, U.S. Institute of Peace, says NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyii has made progress by bringing civilians into the peace process.
After returning from a recent visit to Iraq, Sarhang Hamasaeed spoke to SIRIUSXM POTUS Ch. 124 about the current situation on the ground and the work USIP is doing to hold reconciliation dialogues. He explained some of the key issues for the country’s stability including tensions between the Shia militia presence in Sunni areas, revenge violence, and the upcoming Kurdish referendum.
Derek Mitchell spoke to SIRIUSXM POTUS Ch. 124 about the current humanitarian crisis in Myanmar with more than 350,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border into Bangladesh. Mitchell also addressed the international and domestic constituencies that Aung San Suu Kyi must navigate as the crisis continues while also trying to begin the implementation of the recommendations from the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State aka Annan Report.
"The warring parties continue to believe they can win militarily and the international community has taken no meaningful action to take the military option off the table. It's therefore a context where there's no incentive for political compromise," said Payton Knopf, coordinator of the South Sudan senior working group at the U.S. Institute of Peace. That has emboldened South Sudan's government, he said, and until the international community changes its balance of power "I'm very skeptical that the war will end."