The Success and Sidelining of Women Peacebuilders in Solomon Islands

The Success and Sidelining of Women Peacebuilders in Solomon Islands

Thursday, October 19, 2023

By: Ruth Maetala

During the height of “The Tensions” in Solomon Islands — an armed civil conflict from 1998 to 2003 — women were thrust into the role of peace symbol, negotiator, trauma counsellor and mediator. Women often went in between the two warring sides to negotiate safe trade and movement of people, encouraged militants to give up arms, and led meetings and marches for peace.

Type: Analysis

GenderPeace Processes

Learning from Failed Peace Efforts in Afghanistan

Learning from Failed Peace Efforts in Afghanistan

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

By: Kate Bateman

Over the course of 20 years, the United States made strategic mistakes in its war with the Taliban that helped fuel the insurgency and likely precluded an earlier end to the war. The U.S. government became fixated on a purely military solution, to the neglect of a political solution. This overwhelming focus on dealing the Taliban a decisive defeat was reinforced by the perceived political risks of negotiating a peace agreement with an organization that was seen solely through the lens of the war on terror. The United States should learn from its experience in Afghanistan and the opportunities it missed to reach a better and faster outcome to the war.

Type: Analysis

Peace Processes

Is a Saudi-Israel Normalization Agreement on the Horizon?

Is a Saudi-Israel Normalization Agreement on the Horizon?

Thursday, September 28, 2023

By: Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen;  Ambassador Hesham Youssef;  Robert Barron;  Adam Gallagher

In recent months, a drumbeat has built around the U.S. effort to negotiate a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The deal would be a tectonic shift in Middle East geopolitics, but also carries major implications for other actors beyond the three negotiating parties. Israel would, of course, benefit from normalized relations with the Saudis — long seen as the “holy grail” of potential normalization agreements for the country. The Saudis, in turn, would see their interests advanced through strengthened U.S partnership in key areas. But this deal could also have serious implications for the future of the Palestinian national movement and, further afield, for the role of China in the Middle East.

Type: Analysis

Peace Processes

Why We Should Back Ukraine’s Diplomatic Long Game

Why We Should Back Ukraine’s Diplomatic Long Game

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

By: A. Wess Mitchell, Ph.D.

A number of commentators have criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s latest peace summit in Jeddah for failing to produce tangible deliverables. What these criticisms miss is that Ukraine is playing a game of diplomatic attrition aimed at countering Russia’s central objective: international acquiescence to its violent seizure of a neighbor’s territory. The United States should support Ukraine’s efforts, most immediately by seeking a U.N.-sanctioned conference on the sidelines of next month's U.N. General Assembly session.

Type: Analysis

Global PolicyPeace Processes

Ukraine is advancing its peace plan. The U.S. can help.

Ukraine is advancing its peace plan. The U.S. can help.

Thursday, August 3, 2023

By: Sasha Pippenger

While Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion has global attention on the battlefield, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government is also busy advancing a diplomatic initiative: a peace summit to build momentum and cohesion among international partners on its 10-point peace plan. The United States should be a leader in backing this diplomatic effort — which is on the agenda this weekend in multilateral talks in Saudi Arabia. Broadening international buy-in for Ukraine’s peace plan serves U.S. interests. It can short-circuit less constructive peace initiatives and reinforce a cardinal international norm: An aggressor that launches an unprovoked war can't expect to set the terms for peace afterward.

Type: Analysis

Global PolicyPeace Processes

Is China Preparing to Make a Run at Israeli-Palestinian Peace?

Is China Preparing to Make a Run at Israeli-Palestinian Peace?

Thursday, June 22, 2023

By: Adam Gallagher

Since April of last year, Xi Jinping and China’s foreign policy apparatus have been touting the Chinese leader’s vision of an alternative to the U.S.-led global security order, dubbed the Global Security Initiative (GSI). While Beijing has incrementally elaborated on Xi’s GSI, it remains an inchoate, fuzzy concept. What is clear is that Beijing wants to be seen as a global force for peace and stability that is capable of resolving international issues that appeared intractable under the U.S.-led security order. And it has repeatedly pointed to the detente it brokered between longtime foes Iran and Saudi Arabia as an example of its peacemaking prowess. As China deepens its involvement in the Middle East and campaigns for the GSI, is it gearing up to take on one of the region’s most vexing challenges, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Type: Analysis

Global PolicyPeace Processes

What Can Bougainville’s Independence Movement Learn from Timor-Leste?

What Can Bougainville’s Independence Movement Learn from Timor-Leste?

Thursday, June 22, 2023

By: Jim Della-Giacoma

Timor-Leste and Bougainville are two small, tropical island communities — one in Southeast Asia, the other in the South Pacific. While their culture and histories are distinct, they share a common political bond. They both voted overwhelmingly for independence in internationally sanctioned referendums, with Timor-Leste’s vote coming in 1999 and Bougainville’s in 2019. But only Timor-Leste, which is also referred to as East Timor, is now its own nation. What parallels does the path to self-determination in Timor-Leste hold for Bougainville as it looks to achieve the same goal?

Type: Analysis

Peace Processes

Tracking the Evolution of Conflict: Barometers for Interstate and Civil Conflict

Tracking the Evolution of Conflict: Barometers for Interstate and Civil Conflict

Monday, June 12, 2023

By: Gary Goertz;  Paul F. Diehl;  Andrew P. Owsiak;  Luis Schenoni

This paper presents news ways to track violent conflict over time, providing conflict barometers for interstate and civil conflict, respectively. After critiquing previous efforts at measurement, the authors discuss general principles concerning the utility of conflict barometers. The interstate barometer is based on establishing a baseline for the relationship between a pair of states and then using the incidence and severity of militarized confrontations to track variations around those baselines. The resulting Interstate Conflict Severity Barometer (ICSB) is scaled from 0 (no violent conflict) to 1,000 (rivalry plus severe militarized confrontations) for 2,631 different state-state relationships over the period 1900–2015.

Type: Discussion Paper

Conflict Analysis & PreventionPeace Processes

Una lideresa social colombiana propone una estrategia para la paz con base en las comunidades

Una lideresa social colombiana propone una estrategia para la paz con base en las comunidades

Friday, May 26, 2023

By: USIP Staff

Tras nueve meses después del inicio de los nuevos esfuerzos del gobierno colombiano para alcanzar la "Paz Total" con los grupos armados que aún continúan activos luego de décadas de conflicto armado, este proceso debería buscar un espacio para que las miles de organizaciones comunitarias y de base del país fortalezcan la paz a nivel local cuando cesen los combates, dice una destacada líderesa social de una de las regiones más violentas del país. La estabilización de Colombia, desde donde la migración hacia Estados Unidos y otros países se disparó el año pasado, requerirá un apoyo constante de Estados Unidos y de sus socios internacionales, dijo María Eugenia Mosquera Riascos, quien ayuda a dirigir una red colombiana de 140 organizaciones cívicas y comunitarias que trabajan para poner fin a la violencia.

Type: Analysis

GenderPeace Processes

Colombian Civic Leader Offers a Grassroots Strategy for Peace

Colombian Civic Leader Offers a Grassroots Strategy for Peace

Friday, May 26, 2023

By: USIP Staff

Nine months into new efforts by Colombia’s administration to achieve “total peace” with remaining armed groups following decades of civil war, that process should make room for the nation’s thousands of grassroots and community organizations to strengthen peace locally when the fighting stops, says a prominent civic leader from one of the country’s most violent regions. Stabilizing Colombia, where migration toward the United States and other countries soared last year, will require steady support from U.S. and international partners, said Maria Eugenia Mosquera Riascos, who helps lead a Colombian network of 140 civic and community organizations working to end violence.

Type: Analysis

GenderPeace Processes