La Transition politique du Tchad à un Tournant décisif

La Transition politique du Tchad à un Tournant décisif

Thursday, December 14, 2023

By: Archibald S. Henry;  Joseph Sany, Ph.D.

Le 17 décembre, les Tchadiens voteront lors d'un référendum visant à approuver une nouvelle constitution pour le pays, près de trois ans après le début d'un processus de transition politique prolongé, parfois agité. On s’attend à ce que le référendum constitutionnel ouvre la voie à la candidature du Président Mahamat Déby aux élections présidentielles de 2024, après avoir dirigé le pays depuis 2021, et un ajustement du système de gouvernance tchadien vers un État unitaire non-fédéral, avec en théorie une décentralisation et autonomie territoriale plus accrue.

Type: Analysis

Democracy & Governance

Chad’s Political Transition at an Inflection Point

Chad’s Political Transition at an Inflection Point

Thursday, December 14, 2023

By: Archibald S. Henry;  Joseph Sany, Ph.D.

On December 17, Chadians will vote in a referendum to approve a new constitution for the country nearly three years into a protracted, at times turbulent political transition process. The constitutional referendum is expected to pave the way for President Mahamat Déby to run for president in the 2024 national elections after leading the country since 2021, and adjust Chad’s system of governance to be a unitary, non-federal state with increased decentralization and territorial autonomy.

Type: Analysis

Democracy & Governance

For Peace in the Sahel, Can the U.S. Work with Algeria?

For Peace in the Sahel, Can the U.S. Work with Algeria?

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

By: Thomas M. Hill

Amid the Sahel region’s crises — a continent-spanning web of communal and terrorist insurgencies and eight coups d’etat since 2020 — U.S. and European attention is focused elsewhere: on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s expanding global influence and the Israel-Palestine conflict. But an opportunity to promote stabilization in the Sahel, notably in Mali and Niger, could be U.S. collaboration with Algeria. Algeria shares borders with those violence-stricken states, and also the U.S. desire to help stabilize them and their Sahel neighbors. A first question for any joint U.S-Algerian engagement is whether the two countries’ visions for Sahel stability, particularly in Mali and Niger, are aligned or contradictory.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & PreventionGlobal Policy

Civil War Pushes Sudan to the Brink of Humanitarian Disaster

Civil War Pushes Sudan to the Brink of Humanitarian Disaster

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

By: Ashish Kumar Sen

Away from the headlines dominated by the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, a civil war between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is pushing the country to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. As an allegedly genocidal RSF gains the upper hand, a U.N. official has warned that Sudan is “facing a convergence of a worsening humanitarian calamity and a catastrophic human rights crisis.”

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & PreventionHuman Rights

How Nelson Mandela’s Legacy Still Resonates for Youth Movements

How Nelson Mandela’s Legacy Still Resonates for Youth Movements

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

By: Miranda Rivers

As December marks 10 years since the passing of Nelson Mandela, an icon of 20th-century struggles for justice and peace, a new generation of activists is building from his legacy to counter our 21st-entury crises of rising global violence. Among the signs of Mandela’s vital relevance for us now is a global, online conference to bolster nonviolent social action in pursuit of justice and peace that opens December 7, hosted by the Stanford University-based World House Project with partner groups from South Africa, India, Mexico and elsewhere.

Type: Analysis

Nonviolent Action

After Six Months of Civil War, What’s the State of Play in Sudan?

After Six Months of Civil War, What’s the State of Play in Sudan?

Thursday, October 19, 2023

By: Alex Rondos

What started as clashes in Khartoum this April between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has devolved into a civil war. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who leads the SAF, and his former deputy, the RSF’s General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, had worked together in toppling the Bashir regime in 2019 and orchestrating a military coup in 2021. But tensions over how the RSF would integrate into the SAF eventually led to fighting that has metastasized over the last six months. Caught in the crossfire are Sudanese civilians, who are experiencing a growing humanitarian crisis.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

In Northeast India, Manipur’s Violence Echoes Sudan’s Darfur

In Northeast India, Manipur’s Violence Echoes Sudan’s Darfur

Thursday, October 12, 2023

By: Binalakshmi Nepram;  Manal Taha;  Kris Inman, Ph.D.

Rising violence this year threatens to deepen instability in India’s far northeastern region. Ominously, the bloodshed centered in India’s state of Manipur includes elements that were visible in early stages of the 20-year-old conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region. Darfur’s violence has killed or displaced millions of people and helped lead to this year’s civil war across Sudan. Tragically, both countries have seen these disparate conflicts intensify through widened opportunities for ill-governed ethnic militias and for hate speech. These evolutions have hardened local conflicts over land or water into more extreme, venomous warfare between ethnic or religious communities. Darfur’s example underscores the urgent need for responses in Manipur.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & PreventionViolent Extremism

Donna Charles on Ghana’s Democracy Amid West Africa’s Instability

Donna Charles on Ghana’s Democracy Amid West Africa’s Instability

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

By: Donna Charles

Ghana represents a “bastion of democracy” in a region beset by political instability. With Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo visiting Washington, D.C., this week, the United States can deepen cooperation in a way that “really supports the U.S. message of bringing peace through democracy,” says USIP’s Donna Charles.

Type: Podcast

Can Algeria Help Niger Recover From Its Army Coup?

Can Algeria Help Niger Recover From Its Army Coup?

Thursday, October 5, 2023

By: Kamissa Camara;  Donna Charles

Democracies and democracy advocates should welcome this week’s tenuously hopeful sign in Algeria’s announcement that the 10-week-old military junta in Niger has accepted Algiers’ offer to mediate in a transition to civilian, constitutional rule. Still, Algeria’s government and the junta left unclear the extent of any agreement on mediation, notably disagreeing on a basic element: the duration of a transition process. Algeria can bring significant strengths to a mediating role. In stepping forward from what most often has been a cautious posture in the region, Algeria creates an opportunity that international partners should seek to strengthen.

Type: Analysis

Civilian-Military RelationsDemocracy & Governance