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.
Corruption Poses Unparalleled Threat, U.S. Official Says
Corruption is an unparalleled threat to democracy and prosperity that costs the global economy as much as $2 trillion a year, and it will require the approach of a marathon rather than a sprint to eradicate the scourge, according to William Brownfield, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement. Victories like the current transformation of Ukrainian traffic police from reviled bribe takers to respected public servants give citizens the kind of hope n...
Tunisia’s Revolution: Five Years On, What Lies Ahead
In the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, Tunisia stands alone. As other countries in the upheaval have splintered into civil war or returned to dictatorship, Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution, on its fifth anniversary, remains on a peaceful, democratic path with an elected parliament and coalition government bound by a constitution. At the same time, the specter of a weakening economy, rising violent extremism and an increasingly disillusioned public tugs at the future.
Burns, Flournoy, Lindborg Press Urgency of Fragile States
Three former high-ranking officials in the State Department, the Pentagon and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) urged the next presidential administration to commit more attention and resources to preventing the kinds of violent conflicts that are roiling the Middle East and other regions today and spilling over into neighboring countries, Europe and the United States. Former Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, Under Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy and USAID Assist...
Through a Glass Darkly? The Middle East in 2012
In a period of tremendous change in parts of the world, we are asking USIP leaders, from board members to senior staff and experts, to explain the effects that events abroad and here at home will have on the United States, and the contributions the Institute can and does make. Steven Heydemann is USIP’s senior adviser for Middle East Initiatives.
The Arab Awakening and its Aftermath: How to Shape the Path Ahead
USIP's Steven Heydemann moderates a discussion about the Arab Awakening with the Institute's Stephen Hadley and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Marwan Muasher.
Reforming the Security Sector in Tunisia and Libya
Bob Perito, director of USIP's Security Governance Center of Innovation, recently returned from Tunisia and Libya, where he met with police, military and government officials to examine the current status of the security sector in each country.
Challenges of Reconstruction after Arab Uprisings Discussed at USIP-ROA Briefing
U.S. officials will need to show both humility and patience for years to come as they try to assist the nations of the Middle East and North Africa that have cast off decades-old authoritarian governments and are only beginning a rough and uncertain transition in their political systems and economies, a Capitol Hill audience was told at a February 16 briefing organized by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP).
USIP Conference Assesses Social Media’s Role in Conflict
The new role of social media in popular revolutions and other political change is not the inevitable force for good some commentators portray it as, but its complicated effects are promoting a wider transfer of geopolitical power from traditional nation-states to individuals and institutions, according to speakers at a conference held at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) on September 16.
A Democratic, Islamist Tunisia?
Dan Brumberg, Senior Adviser for the Center for Conflict Management discusses the recent democratic elections in Tunisia.
The Arab Spring and Mideast Peace
The Arab Spring may ultimately foster Arab-Israeli peace efforts if those populist uprisings lead to stable democracies, but in the short run these history-making events are more likely to inhibit steps toward peace. That note of caution emerged from several panelists at a Nov. 2 session on “Arab World Transitions”—part of a day-long conference co-sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.