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.
China Is Not Russia. Taiwan Is Not Ukraine.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — the most consequential military conflict Europe has witnessed since the Second World War — has riveted the attention of the world. Observers have grappled with the meaning of the act of aggression and scrambled to ponder the wider implications of the war. Almost inevitably people look to draw analogies—both historical and contemporary ones.
Tragically, Ukraine’s Agonies Have Only Begun
One week into Russia’s escalated war on Ukraine, it is millions of Ukrainians who have spoken most clearly, as civilians have joined their soldiers to resist for eight heroic days the Russian armored columns that many had expected to quickly capture Kyiv and other cities. The message is clear for Russians and others unable to see it before: Vladimir Putin is engaged in an unprovoked and unjustified war built on lies—about Ukraine, Russia and history—that he has spun purely to dominate Ukraine and advance his ambitions as a modern-day Russian emperor. Tragically, Ukrainians and the world must now prepare for the violence and risks to dramatically increase. Early costs of Russia’s assault: 15,000 Kyiv residents are sheltering in subway stations, above.
William Taylor on the Latest from Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
As Ukraine's military continues to resist Russian advances throughout the country, USIP's Ambassador William Taylor offers the latest updates on the situation, saying that "the international tide is clearly turning against Russia" as more nations implement sanctions and that "Russia is now a pariah state."
With Friends Like These: How Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Hurts Central Asia
While accepting Russia’s big footprint in their security and economic lives, Central Asian countries have tried to conduct “multi-vector” foreign policies. These countries know that having good (or at least balanced) relations with Russia, China and the United States is important in the long term — and that Central Asian leaders who’ve tried to play the big powers against each other often wind up the loser.
How Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine Affects the Rest of Russian Foreign Policy
USIP’s Heather Ashby, Jude Mutah, Andrew Scobell and Mona Yacoubian examine how the invasion of Ukraine might have shifted Moscow’s decision-making in other regions — such as Syria, the Sahel and China.
Ukraine: Putin Chooses His ‘Forever War’
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s massive, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has received the immediate response promised by the United States and allied democracies: economic sanctions and solid support for Ukraine’s self-defense. While deterrence failed to divert Putin from war, its escalation remains a vital tool for the community of democracies to support Ukraine. The choice continues to be Putin’s—to stand down or to dive into an abyss of Europe’s most destructive war in eight decades.
How Putin Turned Religion’s ‘Sharp Power’ Against Ukraine
Long before Russia positioned military forces along Ukraine’s border or menaced its neighbor with cyber-attacks and economic pressure, Moscow deployed another, under-appreciated weapon increasingly used by rising global powers: the transformation of religious soft power into what is known among some scholars of authoritarianism as “sharp power.”
Russia’s Assault on Ukraine and the International Order; Assessing and Bolstering the Western Response
William B. Taylor, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and vice president, Russia and Europe at the U.S. Institute of Peace, testified on February 2, 2022, before the U.S. Helsinki Commission's hearing on "Russia's Assault on Ukraine and the International Order." His expert testimony as prepared is presented here.
After U.S.-Russia Talks, Risk of War in Ukraine Still High
The risk of a new Russian invasion of Ukraine remains high after today’s meeting in Geneva between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The United States delivered its warning, with European allies, of what Blinken called a “swift, severe and a united response” if the Russian troops massed at Ukraine’s border should attack. But the outcome offered at least a hope of avoiding war as Blinken agreed to offer a set of “written comments” to Russia next week on its demand for “security guarantees” that include barring Ukraine from ever joining NATO — a demand that Ukraine, NATO and the United States reject.
William Taylor on the Crisis in Ukraine
While Ukraine’s military is in much better shape than when Russia first invaded in 2014, USIP’s William Taylor says it’s “not able to hold off the entire Russian military” alone, and that the United States and NATO must “make it clear to President Putin that the costs of invading will be much greater than the benefits.”