Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations

• Framework for Success: Fragile States and Societies Emerging from Conflict
  This strategic framework is crafted to be useful to (and ideally shared by) all the actors involved in post-conflict stability and state-building operations (i.e., military, government, NGO, IGO, private sector, and host nation leaders). It is organized around end states the ultimate goals of societies emerging from conflict. It also includes critical leadership responsibilities that are crucial to mission success. This framework is most valuable in planning and organizing operations, but it also has great value as an underlying structure from which training and education programs, monitoring efforts, and coordination mechanisms can cascade. It also has value as an organizing framework for cataloging documents, resources, and effective practices.
  Download the framework (PDF - 853KB)


• State-Building Competencies
  State-building is an increasingly important foreign policy mission, whether in the form of assistance to the developing world or in the form of stability and reconstruction operations in post-conflict societies. This document introduces a set of leadership competencies for state-building professionals (SBPs). It is the culmination of several months of work involving secondary research, input from leaders of international interventions, and discussions with practitioners from the military, civilian agencies, NGOs, and international organizations. The competencies are divided into three categories: core leadership competencies, state-building leadership competencies, and specialized state-building competencies. |  Download the PDF (1.04 MB)


• The Oral History Library (Iraq, Afghanistan)
  This extensive collection of interviews of people just back from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan is a valuable resource for individuals studying the U.S. experience in those conflicts, as well as the broader questions of how to conduct stability operations. The Iraq interviews (conducted between July and November, 2004) include 14 Americans who worked on governance, 10 who worked on security, and 13 who worked on reconstruction. The Afghanistan interviews (conducted between October 2004 and September 2005) focus on people deployed in PRTs, and include 36 U.S. government civilians, 12 military officers, and 4 people working for international or non-governmental organizations.


• Reconstruction and Stabilization Series (Filling the Gaps)
  USIP's Filling the Gaps series examines essential areas of post-conflict reconstruction and stabilization where performance has been weak, including transitional governance, natural resources, mass media, economic development, and the role of women. For each of these sectors, top practitioners and experts identified best practices and policy options for those who conduct these complex missions.


• Forensic Training for Human Rights and Humanitarian Investigations
  Physicians for Human Rights, with support from USIP, developed this web-based distance-learning course in the forensic sciences. It targets a wide audience, from less experienced volunteer human rights investigators to expert international professionals. In addition to collecting physical evidence, the course also covers working with families and communities affected by violence. Regular 'quizzes' and exercises encourage trainees to reflect on the material that they have been exposed to and help ensure the learning objectives are met.


• Trauma Healing and Peace Education: A Manual for Lay Counselors and Their Trainers
  This resource, created by OIC International with USIP's support, is a one-week training curriculum for trauma counselors working with war victims, internally displaced persons, and former combatants. The curriculum addresses a range of issues, including methods for de-traumatizing those affected by violence, gender issues, the impact of drugs and alcohol on those suffering trauma, sexual violence, social and economic problems, and reconciliation, among others. The methodologies proposed are interactive, with activities woven throughout.


• Additional Resources
  The Institute has been instrumental in helping seed the peacebuilding field, both intellectually and institutionally. Over the course of its relatively short history, USIP has produced over 400 field-defining publications on conflict management. Click here for access to our full inventory of publications. USIP also has an extensive library. Click here to search our print and digital collections of books, periodicals, audio-visual materials, digital files (documents, audio, and video presentations), and more.


• Training & Education Resources
  The tools described above are valuable assets, but the most important peacebuilding assets are the individuals who engage in it. International peacebuilding (aka, international conflict management) is a relatively new area of systematic study and USIP is making a significant investment in developing relevant materials and courses. Click here to learn more about our Education and Training Center and to access useful materials for the classroom.

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