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
Amid a Changing Global Order, NATO Looks East
What a Transitional Government in Haiti will Require to Succeed
After weeks of consultations, and amidst a near total breakdown of law and order in Haiti, a Caribbean Community (CARICOM)-led effort to create a new transitional governing council may be nearing completion. The council’s establishment would allow for the entry of a multinational security force that would then be able to join with the Haitian National Police and restore order. Some have suggested the inclusion of “enablers” for the new security force — air support, drones, intelligence. But to gain the trust of the Haitian people, the new governing council will need its own popular “enablers,” a systematic way to include many more sectors of Haitian society that are currently ignored or deliberately excluded from governance.
Moscow Concert Hall Attack Will Have Far-Reaching Impact
On Friday, terrorists attacked the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow leaving 140 people dead and 80 others critically wounded. Soon after, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. The terrorist group, which is headquartered in Iraq and Syria, has several branches, including in South and Central Asia. Press reports suggest the U.S. government believes the Afghanistan-based affiliate of the Islamic State, ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), was behind the attack. The Biden administration has publicly noted that it had warned the Russian government of the terrorism threat in early March in line with the procedure of “Duty to Warn.”
What Does the U.N. Cease-Fire Resolution Mean for the Israel-Gaza War?
On March 25, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed Resolution 2728, calling for an “immediate” cease-fire in Gaza. The motion’s passage came after weeks of back and forth and posturing among the UNSC’s permanent and rotating members. The exact phrasing of the resolution and its relevance to the situation on the ground, as well as bilateral and multilateral relations — particularly U.S.-Israel ties — have been the subject of heavy public and media attention since Monday, raising questions about the resolution’s subtext, intent and limitations. USIP’s Robert Barron looks at these questions.
Three Conditions for Successful Engagement with North Korea
The September 13, 2023, meeting between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un in Russia’s Amur Oblast marked a significant crippling of the decades-long U.S. pressure-based approach toward North Korea. The strategy of isolating and pressuring North Korea through United Nations Security Council resolutions to compel its nuclear disarmament in exchange for providing normalized relations, economic aid and sanctions relief may or may not ever have been a winning strategy, but now is no longer viable. The strategy required cooperation among the United States, South Korea, China and Russia, but this now seems a distant prospect.
What’s Driving India-China Tensions?
Since deadly clashes between India and China on their 2,100-mile disputed border — known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC) — nearly four years ago, the two countries have remained in a standoff and amassed an increasing number of troops on either side of the LAC. While India and China have held regular exchanges at the corps commander level since 2020, each side has also continued to militarize and invest in infrastructure in the high-altitude border regions, which may exacerbate risks of clashes or escalation. India-China competition has also deepened beyond the land border, particularly in the Indian Ocean region.
U.S. Plans to Build Africa’s Infrastructure Bring Opportunities, Challenges
An interesting trend is emerging in U.S.-Africa relations: even as the United States moves to counter Chinese influence in key sectors like critical minerals, China’s influence in Africa is subtly reshaping the United States’ own approach to engaging with the continent.
For Sahel Stability, U.S. Needs Broader, Coordinated Policy
As military coups and violent insurgencies have spread across Africa’s Sahel over the past decade, U.S. policy has professed to recognize and address their interconnections across the region, notably through the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership. Yet this effort remains insufficient to meet the scale and complexity of the violence and the underlying failures of governance.
Indonesia’s Nickel Bounty Sows Discord, Enables Chinese Control
As the world moves toward cleaner forms of energy, specific minerals and metals that support this transition have become “critical.” Nickel — a major component used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries — is one such critical mineral. Demand for battery metals is forecast to increase 60-70 percent in the next two decades. This may be a boon for some. But in Indonesia, which produces more than half of the world’s nickel supply, it has led to political, environmental and ethical complications.
For Peace in Haiti, Let’s Build on the Success We’re Ignoring
Haiti’s new eruption of violence threatens anarchy and famine for its 11 million people and endangers security in the entire region, yet “an old narrative that ‘Haiti is hopeless’” risks deterring U.S and international policymakers from any real effort to help, says Marie-Marcelle Deschamps, an internationally recognized Haitian doctor and humanitarian. “The world is hesitating, and thus isolating Haiti, but this ignores many successful ways that Haitians and international partners have built progress and peace together.”
In the Pacific, U.S. Risks Letting Down its Closest Partners
As the United States seeks to shore up alliances and maintain regional stability amid increasing Chinese competition in the Pacific, it needs to mend strained relations with the island states that are its closest partners. The U.S. government describes Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands as “the bedrock of the U.S. role in the Pacific” and “crucial” to U.S. defense there. After months of delay that have undermined those relationships, the United States this month renewed the funding that underpins their government budgets. But significant bilateral strains will require further U.S. attention.