Publications
Articles, publications, books, tools and multimedia features from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest news, analysis, research findings, practitioner guides and reports, all related to the conflict zones and issues that are at the center of the Institute’s work to prevent and reduce violent conflict.
Question And Answer
Amid a Changing Global Order, NATO Looks East
Central African Republic, Chad, and Sudan: Triangle of Instability?
United Nations Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland warned last month that the crises in Darfur, Chad, and Central African Republic (CAR) are intimately linked and could lead to a dangerous regional crisis. What are the factors behind the rebellions within CAR and Chad, and what is their relationship to the Darfur conflict?
Central African Republic: Religious Leaders Call for Dialogue Backed by Grassroots
Reconciliation and peacebuilding in the Central African Republic will require a national dialogue supported by a grassroots movement, according to the Catholic Archbishop of Bangui Dieudonné Nzapalainga. He spoke at USIP alongside a Muslim imam and Protestant minister about the trio’s efforts to end a brutal two-year-old conflict that reportedly has killed more than 5,000 and forced more than 830,000 people from their homes.
Risk to Central African Republic Lies in Avoiding Mistakes of the Past, Experts Say
The future of the Central African Republic rests in part on whether the international community can avoid mistakes of the past by supporting its development for the long haul and building institutions and infrastructure rather than abandoning the country after elections later this month, a group of experts said at an event organized by the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Q&A: Central African Republic Waiting for Peace
Nine months after the Central African Republic (CAR) held free, peaceful and democratic elections for president and parliament, the country continues to struggle for stability and progress. Half of the country remains in need of humanitarian aid, and an increase in violent incidents since September threatens to destabilize any progress made to date. At the end of November, clashes between factions of the ex-Séléka, a formerly united alliance of primarily Muslim armed groups, left 85 dead, 76 injured and 11,000 newly displaced.
U.N. Peacekeeping in the Sahel: Overcoming New Challenges
New U.N. operations in the Sahel present unprecedented challenges for U.N. peacekeeping. They involve the United Nations directly in the struggle against transnational Islamist terrorism, weapons proliferation, and illicit trafficking by international organized crime. The United Nations must operate in countries with harsh terrain, vast expanses, poor communications, and porous borders. In response, the Security Council adopted more robust mandates based on the peace enforcement provisions of...
The 2015–2016 Central African Republic Elections, A Look Back
Plagued by successive coups and waves of violent conflict since its independence in 1960, the Central African Republic managed to hold its first peaceful elections in late 2015 and early 2016. Fears of widespread violence proved unfounded. This report focuses on what went right in those elections and how those conditions have not held a year later, allowing violence to return to the country.
What is the Central African Republic’s Divided Parliament For?
As the U.S. House of Representatives continues to adapt to the leadership of a new speaker, 6,000 miles away, the legislature of the Central African Republic (CAR), the National Assembly, has also recently elected a new leader. However, a change of leadership will not be sufficient to overcome the many challenges and weaknesses faced by this parliament, as the country continues to face rebel groups, communal violence, corruption, and intransigent poverty. The responses of many representatives to recent interviews with USIP raise a more fundamental question: given the context of the CAR, what is a parliament for?
Central African Republic President on ‘Path to Peace’
The Central African Republic’s president, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, came to Washington this week seeking to bolster U.S. support for a peace deal with internal armed groups, saying steady international assistance will be needed to rebuild the state and end years of metastasizing violence.
Beyond Fake News: the Central African Republic’s Hate Speech Problem
After a recent contested election, the Central African Republic finds itself in a precarious situation. Violence around the election combined with the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 and destructive flooding have caused the humanitarian emergency to reach its worst state in five years. Meanwhile, the CAR government has been accused of engaging in Russian-backed disinformation campaigns targeting domestic civil society, French diplomats and the United Nations peacekeeping mission (MINUSCA), threatening key relationships. Even as the long-simmering issue of hate speech continues to draw fault lines through the country, efforts to combat these campaigns have focused primarily on challenging fake news rather than addressing the underlying fear and prejudice that spoilers use to stoke conflict.
Central African Republic: A Role for Religious Leaders in Calming Conflict?
Presidential and legislative elections loom large in the Central African Republic (CAR) amid high tension and spikes in violence. CAR’s religious leaders have been on the frontlines of efforts to calm tensions ahead of polls opening on December 27. From religious leaders in the capital to those at the grass roots, they have made their voices and positions clear. The question, therefore, is not if religious leaders are crucial actors in conflict stabilization and peace efforts in CAR: They already are. Rather, policymakers and practitioners should be unpacking these leaders’ experiences—past and present—and asking how to strengthen their role as peacebuilding partners in the immediate post-electoral context and longer-term.