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.
New U.N. Goals Highlight Danger of 'State Fragility' to Development
A new set of development goals that will be adopted by the world’s heads of state at the United Nations in September highlights the crucial problem of “fragile states” and the need to strengthen their governance, according to experts including current and former top diplomats and USIP President Nancy Lindborg.
Crucial U.N. Peacekeeping Is Stretched to 'Absolute Limits'
The alarming state of the overtaxed United Nations peacekeeping system endangers human rights, genocide prevention, development and the prospects for sustainable peace, USIP board Vice Chairman George Moose told an audience June 5 at the annual membership meeting of the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area.
After Ireland Vote: Various Roads to LGBTI Rights
Following Ireland’s constitutional referendum to legalize same-sex marriage, the newly appointed senior U.S. diplomat on human rights for gender minorities said he is “incredibly optimistic” about the prospects for the global campaign to guarantee such protections. Still, U.S. Special Envoy Randy Berry and an international group of activists said May 26 that gender-rights movements in many countries face tougher political landscapes than in Ireland and must rely heavily on more legalistic app...
Rebuilding Nepal, from the Government Up
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that wreaked havoc in Kathmandu has opened up an opportunity for the reform the country so desperately needs.
Human Rights Violations: U.S. Foreign Aid for Accountability and Prevention
For two decades, ensuring the U.S. isn’t complicit in gross human rights abuses by foreign police and military forces has rested in significant part on the shoulders of a law devised by Senator Patrick Leahy that bars U.S. foreign aid to individuals or institutions that commit violations. This week, Leahy exhorted more than 130 representatives of government, non-profit groups, international organizations, academia and research institutions gathered at USIP to consider the next step: how U.S. assistance can be used more effectively for both accountability and prevention.
The Women in the Middle of the War
Rampant sexual assault has unmade allegiances in Syria's civil war -- and it may well get worse no matter which side wins.
Episode 20 - Grande Lum
In this episode we speak with Grande Lum – Director of the Community Relations Service (CRS) at the United States Department of Justice. We speak about the origins and birth of CRS during the Civil Rights Movement, some of best mediator and conciliators he has worked with or observed, and how the professional and skill of mediation and negotiation has evolved over time.
Land, Conflict, and Peace in Colombia
USIP’s Virginia “Ginny” Bouvier discusses the connection between land, conflict and peace in Colombia.
The Brilliant Art of Peace
The Brilliant Art of Peace presents lectures delivered by seventeen of the world's most eminent thinkers, including several Nobel laureates, for the United Nations Secretary-General Public Lecture Series. Toni Morrison addresses the state of the humanities, Chinua Achebe contemplates the influence of language on peace, and Desmond Tutu reflects on the role of religion in politics, among many other speakers on a variety of topics. The reader will find humor, moral rigor, and wit in this though...
Afghanistan Experts, at USIP, Examine Country’s Humanitarian Crisis
Andrew Wilder, director of USIP’s Afghanistan and Pakistan programs, and a panel of leading Afghanistan humanitarian specialists gathered at USIP to examine that country’s entrenched humanitarian problems, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Afghanistan’s Continuing Humanitarian Crisis.”