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.
Q&A: Obama’s Troop Decision and Afghanistan’s Stability
Today, President Obama announced that he would extend the presence of roughly 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan through the end of his term in January 2017, revising previous plans to cut force levels to around 5,500 soldiers at the end of the year. Afghanistan will be among the top issues for the NATO Summit of leaders in Warsaw, taking place later this week on July 8-9. USIP Vice President for Asia Programs Andrew Wilder, who recently returned from Afghanistan, discusses the issue of troop n...
Iraqi Foreign Minister Appeals for Post-ISIS Aid
Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and U.S. envoy Brett McGurk today emphasized the urgency of planning and financing Iraq’s recovery from the ISIS onslaught as areas the extremist group had controlled are recaptured more quickly than expected. The two spoke at the U.S. Institute of Peace in advance of an international conference of donors to Iraq convening in Washington tomorrow and a meeting the following day of the global coalition backing the fight.
Q&A: Amid Kerry Visit, Kenya Braces for 2017 Elections
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s first four years in office expire next year and he has announced he’s going to run for a second term in elections scheduled for August 2017. But the competition for power already is heating up.
Iraq’s Executions: Aftershock of ISIS’ Deadliest Atrocity
Iraq’s execution yesterday of 36 men whom it accused of committing the deadliest single atrocity by the Islamic State group underscores that any stabilization of Iraq will require international support to strengthen the country’s overburdened judicial system, according to USIP Iraq specialist Sarhang Hamasaeed. Iraq’s government came under intense pressure from the country’s Shia Muslim majority population, and from the Shia “Popular Mobilization Forces,” or pro-government militias, to conduc...
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...
Nigeria’s Powerful Governors Eye Roots of Boko Haram
Governors from northern Nigeria, where the U.S. military is helping quell the Boko Haram militant group, will convene at the U.S. Institute of Peace for the second time this October to agree on civilian actions they can take to address the root causes of violent extremism and help ensure that efforts to stabilize this vital region will stick. Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson, a USIP senior advisor helping organize the gathering, said Nigerian governors are some of the m...
Ex-Marine Lawmaker Seeks Diplomatic ‘Surge’ in Iraq
After four tours with the U.S. Marines in Iraq, Representative Seth Moulton, a first-term Democrat from Massachusetts, remains focused on the country’s development and its current battle against the ISIS extremist group, and he said he has concluded that its fundamental problems are political. A military strategy that fails to address Iraq’s political weaknesses ensures that American troops—about 5,000 of whom have returned to the country—will be back again five years after ISIS is defeated, ...
ISIS Makes Sex Slavery Key Tactic of Terrorism
The sexual violence committed against women and girls by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) can only begin to be addressed with a multipronged response from the global to the local level, said Zainab Hawa Bangura, the United Nations’ point person on the issue. Speaking at the U.S. Institute of Peace, Bangura cited work ranging from promotion of U.N. resolutions to talks with religious leaders to suggest how the brutal, systematic sexual slavery imposed by the extremist group might be ...
Nigerian Governors Set to Discuss Paths to Progress
The urgent challenges for Nigeria’s powerful northern state governors range from addressing a humanitarian crisis sparked by Boko Haram’s insurgency to boosting economic growth with alternatives such as agriculture to make up for declining oil revenue, Johnnie Carson, a senior advisor at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said ahead of a governors’ symposium to be held at the Institute next week.
Mosul After ISIS: No Clear Plan for Peace
Two weeks into Iraq’s offensive to recapture Mosul from ISIS militants, the government and its fractious allies have not agreed on how to stabilize and govern the disputed region in the aftermath. The threat of new rounds of conflict, even after a recovery of Mosul from ISIS, is highlighted by the weekend’s surprise advance by Shia Muslim militias, which make up one of at least four main rival forces in the assault. The militia units announced that their fighters had begun a drive on the cont...