USIP, in partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and Microsoft Corporation, participated in the first chapter of Generation Change in Egypt. The Egypt chapter marks Generation Change’s 25th chapter worldwide, and the first in the Middle East. Manal Omar, director of USIP’s Iraq, Iran, and North Africa Programs, led the two-day training.

Type: Analysis

Education & Training

USIP’s Dan Brumberg considers the potential for al-Qaida’s growth in North Africa, and the challenge this poses to U.S. relationships with the new, post-conflict governments in the region.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

In the last of a five-part series of papers and meetings on “Reshaping the Strategic Culture of the Middle East,” regional specialist Adeed Dawisha told an audience at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) on June 12 that, contrary to some expectations, no clear political or ideological breach has opened up between the revolutionary states of the Arab Spring and the region’s status quo powers.

Type: Analysis

Environment;  Economics

The standoff in Egypt that resulted in yesterday’s lethal crackdown by the military on Muslim Brotherhood protestors may reflect a dangerous miscalculation by leaders on both sides about how much public support they have and how long they can keep it, said U.S. Institute of Peace expert Manal Omar.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

Assuring access to water of adequate quantity and quality in the face of increasing challenges poses a growing risk of future conflicts. But in preventing any outbreak of conflict, better water management can play a vital role in building peace and cooperation, a variety of officials and specialists said at the Water Security and Conflict Prevention Summit held at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) on September 10.  

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention;  Environment;  Economics

Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. Mohamed M. Tawfik pledged that his interim government would increase public discussion about a revised constitution in the coming weeks as a 50-member commission finalizes a draft for a planned referendum in December. But amid violence, polarization and intimidation, the co-founder of a civic movement said the interim regime has failed to deliver its promised dialogue.

Type: Analysis

For over three decades, every Chinese foreign minister’s first overseas trip of the year has been to Africa. This year continued the tradition with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, visiting Egypt, Tunisia, Togo and Côte d'Ivoire. Notably, every one of these countries is coastal. And yet, at a time of continued speculation over China’s next military installation in Africa, none of these countries has featured prominently as potential locations in previous analyses. We might, therefore, reasonably ask what China’s current considerations are around basing in Africa. Faced with an increasingly multipolar and assertive Africa at a time of domestic economic challenge, however, China’s long-term strategy remains unclear.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

The U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) held its third annual conference on security sector governance on May 10, drawing in activists from North Africa and the Middle East as well as former U.S. ambassadors to the region to assess the political and security-sector challenges arising from the “Arab Awakening.”

Type: Analysis