It can sometimes seem like violent, or negative, conflict is all around us. It is often what is featured in the news and focused on in history class. USIP, sponsor of this category and host of the 2021 Academic WorldQuest National Competition event, focuses on two key points in its work around the world: (1) conflict can be managed without violence, and can even be a force for positive transformation; and (2) even when negative conflict is happening, there are almost always examples of people and organizations doing important work to build peace. This category will explore what peace means in practical terms, and how peacebuilding can still happen in a world full of challenges and conflict.

USIP is a national, nonpartisan, independent institute, founded by Congress in 1984, and dedicated to the proposition that a world without violent conflict is possible, practical, and essential for U.S. and global security. Learn more at www.usip.org. 

Resources from USIP 

• About the U.S. Institute of Peace (Video)
• SNAP Action Guide, Primer on Strategic Nonviolent Action and Peacebuilding Processes 
• Preventing Conflict During the Pandemic in Southern Tunisia, Blog, July 2020
• In Casamance, Dialogue Helps Battle Coronavirus and Builds Trust, Blog, June 2020
• Discovering Peace Through Art in Afghanistan, Blog, February 2020
• 2020 Women Building Peace Award Recipient: Rita Lopidia, Profile, September 2020
• Nonviolent Action in Myanmar: Challenge and Lessons for Civil Society and Donors (PDF), Special Report, September 2020, pages 1-4, 19-23
• Violent Extremism: Disengagement and Reconciliation, PeaceWorks, July 2020, pages 3-16 
• Measuring Collective Impact (PDF), PeaceWorks, July 2020, pages 3-9 
• Briefly: Preventing Election Violence Through Diplomacy (Video), January 2020
• Sanad Press Release on Tal Afar, News Release, September 2020
• Additional Resource for the National Competition: These resources will be updated on USIP’s Academic WorldQuest page.
  • On Peace Podcasts from March 2021 (posted weekly): Please note: The On Peace podcast is on hiatus and will not be used as a resource at the National Competition. All questions will come from other resources listed here. 

Other

• Global Peace Index 2020 (PDF), Institute for Economics & Peace
  • Executive Summary and Key Findings, document pages 2-4
  • Section 1 : The Results, document pages 5-23
  • Section 4: Positive Peace, document pages 53-56, 67-69
• Global Peace Index 2020 Briefing (PDF), Institute for Economics & Peace
• Implementing the Global Fragility Act, Mercy Corps, April 2020
• 2020 Fragile States Index, The Fund for Peace pages 33-38
  • Selection includes the following case studies: “Women of Sudan: Bring a Glimmer of Hope,” Fifteen Years On, Cote D’Ivoire Comes Back from the Brink,” and “Iraq’s Improving Trajectory.”

Preventing Extremism in Fragile States

For the 2020 competition, USIP’s category focused on preventing extremism in fragile states. A curated list of resources from which the questions were pulled provided a snapshot of the latest approaches to addressing the threat of extremism in fragile states; introduced some tools used to bridge divides and prevent violence in conflict zones; and highlighted examples of people, organizations, and communities that are making peace possible. 

While the national competition event in April 2020 had to be cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, students in communities across the country still took part in local competitions and otherwise explored these themes and resources from USIP. To recognize the students’ work, USIP and WACA partnered on a virtual keynote event featuring USIP’s President & CEO Nancy Lindborg in May 2020. This presentation to Academic WorldQuest students and WACA members and a broader public audience on “COVID and Conflict, Pandemics and Peace” is still available online.

Extremism is something that appears in the news more and more these days. Around the world,
extremist movements—such as ISIS, Boko Haram, and al-Shabab—fuel, and often stem from, instability and violent conflict and present a complex challenge to communities and countries, and to U.S. national security.

Increasingly, efforts to address the underlying causes of violent extremism focus on ways to transform fragility into resilience – looking at how extremism can take root when the compact between society and the state has broken down, and at opportunities to empower fragile states to resist the threat of extremism. This strategy of prevention seeks to get ahead of future threats, break the cycle of crisis response, and help make peace possible even in the most difficult contexts.

The resources included here, curated by the category’s sponsor, the United States Institute of Peace, provide a snapshot of the current approaches to address the threat of extremism in fragile states; introduce some tools used to bridge divides and prevent violence in conflict zones; and highlight examples of people, organizations, and communities that are making peace possible. Learn more at www.usip.org.

Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States

• Read “Preventing Extremism in Fragile States” pg. 3-25 – Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States, United States Institute of Peace, February 2019 
• Read “Preventing Extremism in Fragile States: A New Approach” – Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States, United States Institute of Peace , February 2019
• Read “The Complex Threat of Extremism – And a Pathway to Quashing It for Good” – Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States, United States Institute of Peace, February 2019 
• Read “Why Security Sector Governance Matters in Fragile States” – Nathaniel Allen and Rachel Kleinfeld, United States Institute of Peace, June 2019 
• Read “How Civil Society Can Help Prevent Violence and Extremism” – Leanne Erdberg and Bridget Moix, United States Institute of Peace, June 2019
• Watch “Briefly With Nancy Lindborg” (Video) – USIP Staff, April 22, 2019
• Read “18 Years After 9/11: Terrorism Needs to Be Prevented at the Source” – Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, USA Today, September 10, 2019 

USIP Resources

• Read “Reflecting on 9/11: It Is Time for a Policy of Prevention” – Nancy Lindborg, Olive Branch Blog, September 2019 
• Read “Injecting Humanity: Community-Focused Responses for People Exiting Violent Extremist Conflict” – Chris Bosley, August 2019 
• Read “Introduction” section of “Violent Extremism and Community Policing in Tanzania” –Lillian Dang, United States Institute of Peace, March 2019 
• Read “Nigeria’s Worst Violence is Not Boko Haram” – Ena Dion and Isioma Kemakolam, United States Institute of Peace, November 2018
• Read “To Defeat Terrorism, Use ‘People Power’” – Maria Stephan and Leanne Erdberg, United States Institute of Peace, March 2018 

Other Resources 

• Read “Global Peace Index 2019” pg. 2-12 – Institute for Economics and Peace, 2019 
• Read “Global Peace Index 2019 Briefing” – Institute for Economics and Peace 
• Read “Analysis on Yemen, Nicaragua, Arab Spring, Somalia, and Ethiopia” pg. 17-26 “Understanding the Fragile State Index and Indicators” pg. 33-41 – "Fragile States Index” – The Fund for Peace, 2019
• Read “Global Terrorism Index 2018” pg. 65-75 – Vision of Humanity, 2018 

At the 2019 national competition, the USIP-sponsored category focused on bridging divides to build peace. USIP served as the host for the national competition. More than 250 students heard from USIP President Nancy Lindborg (insert information here). Students from Jasper High School in Texas took first place in the competition; duPont Manual High School in Kentucky and Mount Academy in New York took second and third place, respectively. 

Category Description 

A core element of peacebuilding focuses on bridging divides in communities and countries that are either at risk of violent conflict or that need knitting back together in the aftermath of such conflict. While the news often focuses on political, religious, ethnic or economic differences, violence can also be fueled by less-obvious divides such as urban/rural, generational, technological, and other cultural/social factors. To find solutions across these divides, peacebuilders need to carefully analyze the causes of conflict, and find some common space to establish a foundation on which all parties can begin to build a shared understanding and find a way forward. The resources included here, curated by the topic’s sponsor, the United States Institute of Peace, provide a snapshot of the current concepts in peacebuilding; introduce some tools used to bridge divides in conflict zones; and highlight examples of people, organizations and communities that are making peace possible by bridging divides to prevent or resolve violent conflict. Learn more at www.usip.org. 

Explore USIP’s featured resources and the other 2019 Academic WorldQuest categories. 

Conflict is often viewed as something negative, associated with violence, war and destructive acts. However, conflict is a natural part of life, and it can be managed in ways that promote positive outcomes, even in the most difficult circumstances, if the right tools are put into practice. The Peacebuilding Toolkit covers core skills and concepts in the field of conflict resolution, as well as real-life stories of how individuals, communities and countries have used these skills to manage differences without violence and make peace possible.

U.S. Institute of Peace

• Global Campus Course, Introduction to Peacebuilding Chapter 2
  • Introduction (Play Video)
  • Tools, Interventions, and Priorities (Play Video)
  • Spectrum of Peacebuilding Tools infographic (PDF)
• Reconciliation and Transitional Justice in Nepal: A Slow Path, Peace Brief, August 2017
• What works in Facilitated Dialogue Projects, Special Report, June 2017
• Fragility and Resilience, Policy Brief, September 2016
• South Sudan: Friendship Over Fear (Video)
• Peace in Iraq’s ‘Triangle of Death’ (Video)
• Looking Beyond Prison When ISIS Fighters Go Home Olive Branch blog
• The Accord: Colombia’s Commitment to Peace, Olive Branch blog
• Deploying Art Against War, In the Field

Other Resources

• United Nations, Summary of the High-level Dialogue on Building Sustainable Peace
• U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services, Submitted Statement of Madeleine K. Albright and Stephen Hadley
• USA Today, A real national security budget will keep the peace, by Karl Eikenberry
• Vision of Humanity, Global Peace Index 2017 - Highlights
• Beyond Intractability, Levels of Action, by Michelle Maiese summarizing John Paul Lederach

USIP was pleased to sponsor a peace and conflict-themed category for Academic WorldQuest for the first time in 2017. The Institute had the honor of hosting the opening reception for the 2017 national competition on April 28 which brought 250 people from 30 states to our headquarters on the National Mall. The students had an opportunity to explore different elements of the Institute’s work—including work in key countries; the types of training the Global Campus offers; USIP’s relationship with Congress; and more.

Study Guide Materials

Peace and Conflict in Today’s World

Our perspective on the world is shaped by what media – and social media – cover. Oftentimes, the headlines are dominated by stories of war, refugees, and extremism. The reality in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Colombia is much more complicated. In conflict zones around the world, individuals, communities, and organizations are working to prove that peace is possible when they have the tools and knowledge to resolve disagreements without violence. The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) works to prevent, mitigate, and resolve violent conflict around the world. USIP, created by Congress in 1984, does this by engaging directly in conflict zones and by providing analysis, education, and resources to those working for peace.

United States Institute of Peace

Please note: due to upcoming revisions to the website, some of the direct links to USIP resources might change over the course of the 2016-2017 school year. For that reason, the Institute has created one landing page for all Academic WorldQuest materials listed in the Study Guide. The landing page – http://www.usip.org/AcademicWorldQuest - will remain available and include live links to the following resources:

• Read “In the Shadow of a Massacre, a Peaceful Return in Iraq”
• Read “Colombia’s Peace Accord on the Missing”
• Read “Women Charting a New Course on Peace and Security”
• Watch “George Mitchell: Building Peace in Northern Ireland”
• Read the Truth Commission Overviews:
  • El Salvador
  • Rwanda 1999
  • South Korea 2005
  • Honduras 2010

Institute for Economics and Peace

• Read “Global Peace Index 2016: Highlights”
• Read “Global Peace Index 2016: Section 4: Positive Peace & Systems Thinking” pages 52-72 
• Read “Positive Peace Report 2016: Highlights”

U.S. Department of State

• Read “Remarks at Oslo Forum”

United Nations

• Read pages 1-18 “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”
• Read “Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2015” pages 1-11 and 23-27

The World Bank

• Read “The Impact of War and Peace in MENA”

The Asia Foundation

• Read: “A Survey of the Afghan People: Afghanistan in 2015” Executive Summary

National Constitution Center

• Read “10 Americans who’ve won the Nobel Peace Prize”