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.
Bargaining for Peace
South Africa and the National Peace Accord
Rwanda: Accountability for War Crimes and Genocide
Before 1994, Rwanda was the most densely populated country in continental Africa. Between April and August 1994, that statistic shifted radically, as Rwanda lost 20 percent to 40 percent of its population to slaughter or exile.
The U.S. Contribution to Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution in Africa
The failure of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Somalia (UNOSOM II) to build a new state in that war-ravaged country, after the costly U.S. military intervention is often viewed as a critical lesson about the problems associated with the international community's attempts to resolve conflict in Africa. Thus, when genocidal strife erupted in Rwanda in 1994, causing millions of Rwandans to flee into neighboring countries, there was a strong reluctance to allow U.S. forces to become e...
Ending Mozambique's War
The Role of Mediation and Good Offices
Somalia - The Missed Opportunities
By 1992, starvation, disease, and death had engulfed Somalia and its people. Plagued by the violence of civil war, Somalia had become a country with few resources and great despair—electricity, communications, transportation, health services, and food were all in short supply.
Sudan: Ending the War, Moving Talks Forward
Civil war has plagued Sudan off and on since decolonization began in 1955. Between 1955 and 1972, war raged between the predominantly Arab and Islamic north and the Christian and animist south over southern claims for autonomy and self-rule. The war ended with the Addis Ababa agreement, which granted local autonomy to the south. Currently there are deep disagreements in the north between the Islamist government and opposition parties (e.g., the Umma Party and the Democratic Unionist Party) o...
Making War and Waging Peace
This volume focuses on the role and effectiveness of external intervention in sub-Saharan Africa, primarily during the 1980’s. The authors include a range of Western and African scholars and policymakers with extensive experience in Africa.
Sudan Symposium Generates Momentum for Mediation
Civil war has plagued Sudan since 1955, pitting the Islamic North against the Christianized South. The first of the war lasted from 1955 to 1972, when the Addis Ababa Agreement granted the South local autonomy. This report summarized the two-day public symposium, held in Washington at the Rayburn House Office Building, and organized by the United States Institute of Peace and the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa. The symposium promoted reconciliation among factions in the conflic...
South Africa: The National Peace Accord and the International Community
The United States Institute of Peace brought together National Peace Accord officials, United Nations and Organization of African Unity officials, political party representatives, and representatives of conflict resolution non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for a public workshop in late July 1993 to discuss the linkages between the international community and the Peace Accord structures.
Achieving Post-Settlement Peace in Mozambique: The Role of the International Community
Summary The civil war in Mozambique has left hundreds of thousands dead and caused five million Mozambicans to flee their homes, about one third of whom found refuge in neighboring countries. This carnage and devastation was inflicted on a nation that was already desperately poor. Most observers doubted that a peace agreement could be reached with the unpredictable rebels. When the fifty page agreement was signed, most Mozambicans and international experts doubted that the ceasefire would ...