WASHINGTON--Journalists and others seeking to understand the strange machinations of Kim Jong Il and the North Korean regime would do well to read Negotiating on the Edge: North Korean Negotiating Behavior by Scott Snyder, published in 1999 by the U.S. Institute of Peace Press. Scott Snyder, a former program officer with the Institute, now with the Asia Foundation in Seoul, explains in the book that the North Koreans' disturbing penchant for confrontation, threats and violence should not be...

WASHINGTON—The United States Institute of Peace is pleased to welcome Tamara Cofman Wittes, who this week joined our Research and Studies Program as a Middle East specialist. Wittes comes to us from the Middle East Institute, where she was director of programs from June 2000 to December 2002. In that position, she developed and ran programs examining politics, culture and society in the region, from Morocco to Pakistan. A specialist on the Arab-Israeli peace process, Wittes has undertaken r...

WASHINGTON--"The cancer that has afflicted West Africa throughout the 1990s continues to spread. The Ivory Coast is just the most recent state to fall victim to violent instability in what now appears to be a civil war." With these sobering words Chester A. Crocker, chairman of the Board of Directors at the U.S. Institute of Peace, introduced the most recent development in the unfolding West African regional war at a December 9, 2002 Current Issues Briefing at the Institute of Peace titled, "...

WASHINGTON—The likelihood of war with Iraq now hinges on the outcome of the UN mandated inspections that begin in earnest this week. While the terms of these latest inspections—known as UNMOVIC—are different from the earlier inspection and disarmament program—known as UNSCOM—that began after the Gulf War in 1991, there are still important lessons to be learned from its experience. The knowledge gained in these earlier inspections also points to the enormous challenges now confronting UNMOVIC ...

WASHINGTON--Saddam Hussein's persecution of his political enemies, most notably the Kurds of northern Iraq and Shia Muslims in general, is notorious in the West, except in one case: that of the "Marsh Arabs" of southern Iraq. A society of 500,000 people who have lived in and around an enormous freshwater wetland ecosystem for some 5,000 years, the Marsh Arabs have suffered the total destruction of their economy, their culture, their habitat and their way of life. The devastation has not been ...

November 21, 2002 (WASHINGTON) -- The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts today enthusiastically approved the concept design of the United States Institute of Peace's headquarters, to be built at the intersection of 23rd St. and Constitution Ave. NW in Washington, adjacent to the National Mall. The Commission advises the U.S. and District of Columbia governments on architectural and artistic matters that affect the capital city's appearance. The headquarters "is a wonderful building in the ...

WASHINGTON--The United States Institute of Peace mourns the passing of the eminent Israeli scholar Ehud Sprinzak, who succumbed to throat cancer on Nov. 8 at the age of 62. An expert on terrorism and right-wing extremism in Israeli politics and society, Sprinzak had been a senior fellow at the Institute in 1997-98 and a grantee in 1990. Institute President Richard Solomon remembered Sprinzak as an exemplar of the Institute's bridge-building role. For example, he convened two major conferenc...