Somalia’s Federal Agenda May Get Boost with New Regional President

Somalia’s Federal Agenda May Get Boost with New Regional President

Friday, January 17, 2014

By: Dominik Balthasar

The third presidential election in Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland has brought about a change in leadership that might help enhance stability in the Horn of Africa. While it is too early to predict how the shift will ultimately play out in the region, the election of Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas may prove a crucial catalyst for Somalia’s stalled process toward federalism.

Type: Analysis

Media That Moves Millions

Media That Moves Millions

Friday, January 17, 2014

By: Sheldon Himelfarb;  Sean Aday

Three years to the month since protests swept across the Middle East, the new year once again sees peaceful demonstrators facing off against hardened and sometimes violent security forces, this time in the Ukraine. And like in the Arab Spring, social media is being said to play a significant and potentially decisive role in empowering Euromaidan protesters in ways that couldn't have been imagined a decade ago.

Type: Analysis

Q&A Egypt’s Post-Referendum Mood

Q&A Egypt’s Post-Referendum Mood

Thursday, January 16, 2014

By:

Egyptians went to the polls on Jan. 14-15 to vote on a new constitution, the third referendum on a charter since the spring 2011 uprising that ultimately toppled authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak. Manal Omar, USIP’s associate vice president for the Middle East and Africa, has been on the ground in Cairo and discusses the significance of the vote, the issues involved, and the prospects for Egypt’s political system going forward.

Type: Analysis

Reconciliation

Considering the Lessons of Mandela’s Legacy and South Africa’s Reconciliation

Considering the Lessons of Mandela’s Legacy and South Africa’s Reconciliation

Thursday, January 16, 2014

By: USIP Staff

Though the politics and causes of conflicts differ significantly, the experience of South Africa’s peaceful, negotiated turn from racial apartheid to democratic majority rule suggests that a few principles exemplified by the late Nelson Mandela’s leadership are broadly applicable to other conflicts with hardened divisions, according to former participants in the South African transformation who gathered this week at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP).

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & PreventionMediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

'We Want to Move On'

'We Want to Move On'

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

By:

CAIRO — The first day of a much-hyped constitutional referendum confirmed two things that most Egyptians already knew. First, this third referendum in as many years has little to do with the actual document being voted on. And second, there is virtually no question of what the result will be: The constitution will pass by a landslide.

Type: Analysis

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Calls for Reconciliation, U.S. Pressure

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Calls for Reconciliation, U.S. Pressure

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

By: Thomas Omestad

Contending the United States has "a legal and moral responsibility" to help Iraq overcome its slide into political sectarianism, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq said January 14 that the transfer of American weapons to the Iraqi Army to fight al-Qaida-linked militants occupying parts of the western province of Anbar will not succeed without a broader national reconciliation.

Type: Analysis

Libya’s Passions, Perils in Full View

Libya’s Passions, Perils in Full View

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

By: Joyce A. Kasee

The passions that drive Libya's post-revolutionary transition are apparent everywhere in the capital Tripoli, not least in its vibrant graffiti. And there are other tell-tale signs – the skeletons of destroyed vehicles on Tripoli's Mediterranean beaches – of the revolution against four-decade dictator Moammar Gadhafi and the transition that may take generations to gel. Powerful messages convey the issues Libyans are grappling with, their pride in their achievements, their anger at the ousted regime, and their worries about the future.

Type: Analysis

South Sudan Crisis, Ways Forward Analyzed at USIP

South Sudan Crisis, Ways Forward Analyzed at USIP

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

By: USIP Staff

Though the immediate diplomatic focus should remain on arranging a cease-fire, a longer-term political process to overcome the crisis in South Sudan will need significant involvement by the international community, particularly the United States, members of an expert panel said at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) on January 10.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

The Parochial Web

The Parochial Web

Monday, January 13, 2014

By: Anand Varghese

In July 2010, renowned Internet research scholar Ethan Zuckerman gave a TED Talk on “Listening to Global Voices.” He describes how, while the infrastructure of the Internet might create new opportunities for us to have conversations across geographic and cultural boundaries, in reality, we tend to connect with people most like us. As in the offline world, on the Internet, birds of a feather flock together.

Type: Analysis

Terms of Endurance

Terms of Endurance

Friday, January 10, 2014

By: Jon Temin;  Susan Stigant

Only two and a half years removed from its birth, South Sudan is in crisis. A dispute between President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, his former vice president, has quickly taken on ethnic overtones and escalated into widespread fighting, with dire consequences. Over 1,000 people have been killed -- perhaps many more -- with another 200,000 displaced. The national army has split in two and is essentially fighting itself. Forces loosely aligned with Machar control several key parts of the countr...

Type: Analysis