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.
Question And Answer
Why Counterterrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan Still Matters
Question And Answer
What Does the Xi-Ma Meeting Mean for Cross-Strait Relations?
Myanmar’s Crisis Looms Over the ASEAN Summit
This week, Indonesia hosted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit and its related meetings with dialogue partners, including the East Asia Summit, in Jakarta. The three-day affair was bogged down by the bloc’s continued inability to sort through internal divisions over member-state Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, which has allowed the ruling junta’s violence and support for criminal enterprises to fester into transnational problems. Meanwhile, the absence of several leaders from major ASEAN partners, such as China’s Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden, further dampened proceedings.
At G20, India Tests Geopolitical Clout Amid Xi’s Absence
World leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) gather this weekend in New Delhi, India, for the intergovernmental forum’s annual summit. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is aiming to leverage the summit to showcase India’s growing international influence. The summit will be center stage for the emerging divisions in world politics and for major powers’ efforts to woo the Global South. Yet, despite this competition, China’s Xi Jinping has opted to not attend the summit in what many see as a snub to rival India. The White House has said it will come to the summit with a “value proposition” for the Global South, focused on multilateral development reform, climate financing, debt relief and technology.
U.S.-China Competition Presents Vietnam with Risks and Opportunities
In recent years as U.S.-China strategic competition has ramped up, Southeast Asia has been one of the key domains where this rivalry is playing out. Vietnam is the only Southeast Asian country that has suffered from direct military confrontations with several major powers. It suffered at the height of the Cold War, and also when the major powers entangled and realigned their relationships when geostrategic factors shifted, such as when the United States and China improved ties in the early 1970s. So, Vietnam is especially sensitive to this intensifying strategic competition and attuned to the impact on its relationships with major powers.
How Small States Navigate U.S.-China Rivalry: The Case of Cambodia
Amid growing distrust and an intensifying systemic rivalry, U.S.-China relations are at the lowest point in decades. In Washington, the last three U.S. administrations have sought to balance, challenge and counter China’s rises in Asia. In Beijing, revisionist leader Xi Jinping’s regime has an ambitious plan for “national rejuvenation” and views the United States as the major strategic threat to China’s ambitions. Countries like Cambodia are caught in between.
U.S.-Pacific Islands Summit: Getting Beyond the Honeymoon Phase
President Joe Biden will host Pacific Island leaders for a summit at the White House starting next Monday, marking one year since the first-ever such summit in September 2022. These high-level meetings signify the increasing level of attention that the U.S. government is paying to the region as its concerns about China’s activities there grow.
The West Should Help, Not Hinder, Russia’s Anti-war Exiles
As democracies defend Ukraine and themselves against Vladimir Putin’s project of a world governed by ruthless violence, a vital ally is Russia’s own civil society, now effectively crushed within Russia but energetic within the new exile community of antiwar Russians, most of them young and well educated.
For the Philippines, Maritime Security Goes Beyond U.S.-China Rivalry
Maritime security is a critical issue for Southeast Asia and the geopolitical underpinnings of this topic cannot be underestimated. This is especially the case for small powers as they navigate a maritime domain that is caught in the middle of — and driven by — great power politics. While maritime security in Southeast Asia is often the stage on which the U.S.-China competition plays out, this extends beyond the competing claims of regional states in the South China Sea, with important environmental and resource issues also at stake. Within this context, the Philippines is in a unique position for three reasons.
Ukraine: The Next 10 Months Can Shape Hopes for Peace
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine moves toward its second full winter, observers note that typically heavy rains and then cold may enforce a season of slower fighting. But the war’s most meaningful “next season” may well be not the winter but the nine to 10 months until next summer. Three factors critical to Ukraine’s defense and Europe’s security will evolve by the summer in ways that could open a path toward a just and lasting peace — or could leave the region facing indefinite warfare and threat.
Amid Alarming Rise in Conflict, Multilateralism is the Only Answer
At the opening of the 2023 session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted for world leaders the preamble of the organization’s Charter, which says that the “people of the United Nations” are “determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” Yet, he explained that “instead of ending the scourge of war, we are seeing a surge of conflicts, coups and chaos.” Indeed, in 2022, there were 55 state-based and 82 non-state conflicts raging around the world, and the period from 2017 to 2021 saw the highest death tolls from non-state actors in armed conflict since 1989.
As China Looks to Reform Global Governance, How Does It Approach the U.N.?
As China has increasingly positioned itself as a global leader and foremost champion of the Global South, Xi Jinping and other top Communist Party officials have been vociferous in their critiques of the U.S.-led international order. Through a bevy of initiatives and proposals — like Xi’s Global Security Initiative — offered in recent years, Beijing has made clear that it wants to see a wholesale reform of global governance. At the June 2022 BRICS summit, for example, Xi called for a “new type of international relations” that rejects hegemony and zero-sum thinking. What this ultimately amounts to is Beijing’s effort to undermine U.S. global leadership as the U.S.-China rivalry intensifies.