Question And Answer
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.
Regional Actors Seek to Douse Flames Fueled by Jerusalem Tensions
The saying that history doesn’t repeat, but rhymes is no truer than in Jerusalem. Two years have yet to pass since the large-scale escalation that took root in the city morphed into deadly violence between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel and an Israel-Hamas military escalation that claimed the lives of over 200 Palestinians and 12 Israelis. Now, once again, events in and around Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan have become proximate cause for a cascading series of violent events that have victimized Palestinians and Israelis, and opened another chapter of contested narratives and mutual recriminations.
Conflict Dynamics between Bangladeshi Host Communities and Rohingya Refugees
In August 2017, several hundred thousand Rohingya fled violence and persecution in Myanmar, seeking refuge in Cox’s Bazar in neighboring Bangladesh. In the years since, the Bangladeshi government has provided a safe haven for the refugees. Yet there are signs of increasing discontent in the Bangladeshi host community over insecurity, economic costs, and other negative effects of the refugee camps. As this report explains, addressing this potentially combustible situation will be vital to ensuring a sustainable humanitarian effort in Cox’s Bazar.
Six Months in, Where Does the U.S.’ Pacific Islands Strategy Stand?
In September 2022, the United States announced the Pacific Partnership Strategy, its first-ever roadmap for the region, amid increasing geopolitical competition between China and the United States and its partners. However, the strategy only makes one reference to Beijing — most of the text details how Washington will tackle the challenges that have been identified as priorities by the Pacific Island countries themselves, especially the climate crisis. This reflects the U.S. government’s understanding that, while some regional leaders have expressed their own concerns about China, Pacific Island countries want Washington to engage with them for their own sake, not just to counter Beijing.
What’s Next for the Taliban’s Leadership Amid Rising Dissent?
Since their takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have moved to restrict social freedoms, with a persistent focus on the rights of women and girls. Two edicts issued in December 2022, indefinitely banning Afghan women from attending universities and prohibiting working in NGO offices, constitute the most extreme restrictions yet — orders that were expanded this week to apply to women working for the U.N. as well.
Ambassador William Taylor on Ukraine’s Spring Offensive
While reporting and leaked files indicate that a Ukrainian offensive to expel Russian troops is in the works, USIP’s Ambassador William Taylor says Ukraine still has the element of surprise: “Everyone knows that there’s this counteroffensive coming … what they don’t know is where.”
Pakistan’s Existential Economic Crisis
Pakistan’s stability increasingly depends on the outcome of an ever-worsening economic crisis. Amid skyrocketing inflation, political conflict between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government and former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and surging terrorism, the country is facing the risk of a default due to its massive external debt obligations. This burden has been exacerbated by the derailment of the $6.5 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program Pakistan entered in 2019, as the international lender is unsatisfied with Pakistan’s commitment to reform and ability to arrange for funds to meet external financing requirements. Troublingly, Pakistan’s official foreign exchange reserves are hovering around $4 billion, which is insufficient to finance even a one-month of the country’s import bill.
In Africa, Here’s How to Respond to Russia’s Brutal Wagner Group
The United States is rightly concerned at the growing role in Africa of Russia’s Wagner Group, which operates as an auxiliary of President Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime. Where African governments have asked Wagner for security assistance, the group deploys military, economic and political interventions that deepen violence, corruption and authoritarian governance. Wagner’s role disrupts Africans’ efforts to move their countries from violent conflict to stability. Yet many Western responses are ineffective, even playing into Kremlin messaging to Africa and the Global South. An effective alternative requires that we listen to Africans’ voices and respond based on our shared values.
Don’t Look Away from China’s Atrocities Against the Uyghurs
While atrocity crimes — and the pursuit for accountability — in Ukraine have dominated global attention in the last year, momentum has continued to build in seeking accountability for China’s crimes against the Uyghurs and other minority groups. Most of this progress has been made at the state level, including legal cases under the principle of universal jurisdiction, atrocity determinations finding that genocide and crimes against humanity are ongoing, and efforts to exclude Chinese goods made with forced labor from domestic markets. Although this momentum has been slow and not without setbacks, it has also been steady, strengthening the record of Beijing’s crimes against the Uyghurs and the overall case for accountability.
For Libyans, Elections Are Just Part of the Path to Peace
In mid-March, a delegation of prominent Libyans traveled to Washington carrying an important message: a new U.N. initiative focused on holding elections is welcome but it must be part of a bigger, comprehensive reconciliation effort to bring peace and stability to Libya. According to the deputy head of Libya’s Presidential Council, Abdullah Al-Lafi, reconciliation — and elections — can only be achieved by Libyans themselves. In Washington, Al-Lafi and the members of his delegation presented their own initiative for a national reconciliation project in order to create a Libyan-led process that complements the plan for elections proposed by U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya Abdoulaye Bathily.
What Can We Learn from Northern Ireland’s 25 Years of Peace?
Next week marks 25 years since Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement ended three decades of violent conflict between Catholics and Protestants. What can we learn from that breakthrough to strengthen peace efforts today? A Northern Irish peacebuilder argues a that a vital step in his homeland’s peace process placed civil society — and, critically, civil society’s religious participants — at its center in a way that other peace efforts (between Israelis and Palestinians, for example) have not. Northern Ireland continues to build reconciliation, a demonstration that, while religious factors sometimes fuel conflict, a fuller engagement of religious leaders and groups contributes powerfully to lasting peace.