Publications

USIP regularly publishes an array of comprehensive analysis and policy recommendations on current international affairs issues, especially on the prevention and resolution of conflict.

We encourage you to sign-up to receive our weekly e-mail newsletter to receive notification of new publications. Below is an overview of the most recent publications. You can also view Special Reports and Peaceworks organized by region.

Peacebuilding Toolkits

USIP Develops Fragile States Framework
Working with a wide array of partners from non-governmental organizations, governments, militaries, international organizations, and the private sector, USIP is helping develop common doctrine, frameworks, and methodologies in support of peacebuilding.
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).
Download the toolkit (PDF - 1.04MB)

USIP Press

Spring 2009 Catalog
The Spring 2009 USIP Press Book Catalog is now available, featuring new and forthcoming books such as Conspiracy of Silence: The Insurgency in Southern Thailand, by Zachary Abuza; Assessing the Impact of Transitional Justice: Challenges for Empirical Research, edited by Hugo Van Der Merwe, Victoria Baxter, and Audrey R. Chapman; and Colombia: Building Peace in a Time of War, edited by Virginia M. Bouvier. | Go to the Bookstore

Download the complete catalog (20MB)

PeaceWatch

December 2008 PeaceWatch Newsletter
The newly redesigned December 2008 edition of PeaceWatch features: A special message on USIP in a new era from President Richard H. Solomon and Board Chair J. Robinson West; the story behind USIP's involvement in the creation of the State Department's Civilian Response Corps; highlights of the Institute's future Public Education Center, and more. | Read More

Download the complete newsletter (2.4MB)

Recent Publications

Recruitment of Rule of Law Specialists for the Civilian Response Corps
January 2009 | USIPeace Briefing | Scott Carlson and Michael Dziedzic
For more than a decade, experienced international practitioners and peace scholars have recognized that multilateral interventions in societies ravaged by internal conflict cannot succeed unless they come prepared to deal with the inevitable void in public security and inability of the legal system to function effectively. In 1998, two core components of any solution to this crucial deficiency were highlighted in Policing the New World Disorder.

Iran's Long Reach: Iran as a Pivotal State in the Muslim World
October 2008 | USIP Press | Suzanne Maloney
As the third book in the series from the Institute’s Muslim World Initiative on pivotal states in the Muslim world, this lucid and timely volume sheds much-needed light on Iran’s strikingly complex political system and foreign policy and its central role in the region.
| Go to the Bookstore

Toward the End of Poverty in Haiti
December 2008 | USIPeace Briefing | Robert Maguire
In July 2006, Haitian poet and historian Jean-Claude Martineau spoke at USIP and said that Haiti is the only country in the world with a last name—“Haiti, poorest country in the western hemisphere” —as described in the media. Sadly, in the two years since, conditions have worsened. Four severe storms that struck Haiti in September 2008 only exacerbated the already critical problem of the country’s poverty.

Telling the Story: Documentation Lessons for Afghanistan from the Cambodian Experience
December 2008 | USIPeace Briefing | Scott Worden and Rachel Ray Steele
USIP recently co-sponsored a conference in Cambodia to highlight lessons learned about war crimes documentation for Afghan human rights practitioners. USIP's Scott Worden, who organized the event, reports that a broad range of documentation techniques from computer databases to memorials are available to tell victims' stories in a way that promotes healing and a greater understanding of the past.

Disaster in the DRC: Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis in North Kivu
December 2008 | USIPeace Briefing | Go Funai and Catherine Morris
This USIPeace Briefing discusses the resurgent violence that left hundreds dead, thousands displaced and millions destitute in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The report, by Go Funai and Catherine Morris, highlights the meaning of "human security" in a chronic conflict zone, informal lending mechanisms among local ethnically homogenous communities and the role of neighboring African states in contributing to conflict and stability in the DRC.

Iraq in the Obama Administration
December 2008 | USIPeace Briefing
President-elect Obama has stated his commitment to withdraw combat brigades from Iraq within 16 months, leaving a residual force of unspecified size for counterterrorism operations, training and equipping Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and protection of Americans. Judging from his statements during the campaign, it appears that the President-elect would like to leave Iraq’s internal problems to the Iraqis and treat Iraq as part of overall regional concerns rather than being his central focus.

Toward Resolving Chad’s Interlocking Conflicts
December 2008 | USIPeace Briefing | Sarah Bessell and Kelly Campbell
The fragility of the Chadian government, as well as the fragmentation among Chadian civil society, political parties, and rebel movements, poses significant challenges that Chadian civil society, regional governments, African institutions and the international community must address with a coordinated strategy. Although the situation in the country is often examined through the lens of the Darfur crisis, several internal factors drive the instability in Chad and its regional actions.

Evaluating Iraq’s Provincial Reconstruction Teams While Drawdown Looms: A USIP Trip Report
December 2008 | USIPeace Briefing | Rusty Barber and Sam Parker
Two USIP specialists recently traveled to Iraq to examine the effectiveness of Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Their primary findings were that PRTs play a critical role in facilitating the expenditure of Iraqi funds on Iraqi reconstruction and development. Moreover, the PRTs perform a range of secondary tasks that contribute greatly to the broader US civilian-military effort in Iraq.

Consolidating Disarmament: Lessons from Colombia’s Reintegration Program for Demobilized Paramilitaries
November 2008 | Special Report | Jonathan Morgenstein
An essential component of any post-conflict stabilization program is the permanent dismantlement of armed groups and their fruitful absorption into civilian society—this process is known as disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration. Although Colombia continues to wrestle with violent conflict at the hands of multiple armed factions, the country embarked on a major DDR program in 2003 with the goal of permanently ending the threat of violence from one of those armed factions—the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC).

Haiti After the Storms: Weather and Conflict
November 2008 | USIPeace Briefing | Robert M. Perito
In September 2008, four hurricanes and tropical storms—Fay, Gustav, Hannah and Ike—slammed into Haiti with devastating force. Nearly 800 people were killed, 300 remain missing and more than 500 were injured.

What Iraq Needs from the Obama Administration: Recommendations from Iraqis Resident in the U.S.
November 2008 | USIPeace Briefing | Elizabeth Detwiler
Iraq has experienced a notable reduction in violence in the past year, and the Iraqi panelists asserted the need for a continued presence of multinational forces to maintain this progress. However, as Almusawi specified, Iraqis insist that any agreement regarding the presence of foreign troops should not compromise the country's sovereignty. The terms of the agreement must be clear, in Iraq's interests and approved by the Iraqi people.

Iraq’s Cultural Heritage: Preserving the Past for the Sake of the Future
October 2008 | USIPeace Briefing | Elizabeth Detwiler
The looting of Iraq’s museums and archaeological sites is an overlooked consequence of the 2003 invasion. The loss of such precious history would be tragic for any nation or culture.

The Next Chapter: The United States and Pakistan
October 2008 | Pakistan Policy Working Group Report
On October 2, 2008, the USIP-cosponsored Pakistan Policy Working Group released a report with recommendations to the next administration as it develops its strategic options relating to Pakistan. The recommendations are endorsed by Richard L. Armitage, former deputy secretary of state and Lee Hamilton, former U.S. representative and co-chair of the 9/11 Commission and the Iraq Study Group.

The Treasury Approach to State-Building and Institution-Strengthening Assistance: Experience in Iraq and Broader Implications
October 2008 | Special Report | Jeremiah S. Pam
Drawing on a series of consultations convened by USIP's Center for Sustainable Economies, author Jeremiah S. Pam focuses on the role of the U.S. Treasury Department in finance-related state-building and institution-strenthening. Specifically, the report identifies key dynamics in the field and discusses aiding local institutions, providing technical assistance, improving interagency coordination and enabling local champions for such efforts.

Whither Peace Operations?
October 2008 | Special Report | Donald C. F. Daniel
Peace operations have undergone several evolutions since the first United Nations–administered peace mission in 1948. A characteristic feature of the most recent evolution, which began about a decade ago, is that today peace operations are more broadly accepted as a tool for contending with destabilizing events in all regions of the globe.

Media, Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding: Mapping the Edges
October 2008 | USIPeace Briefing | Sheldon Himelfarb and Megan Chabalowski
There is growing recognition among policymakers and conflict management experts that the media should be a building block of any comprehensive peacebuilding strategy. Yet there are scant guidelines in this regard. Projects are still planned and implemented in a relatively ad-hoc manner, with minimal reference to lessons learned from previous initiatives. This USIP Peacebriefing examines the field.

Abrahamic Alternatives to War: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on Just Peacemaking
October 2008 | Special Report | Susan Thistlethwaite and Glen Stassen
Eight Muslim scholar-leaders, six Jewish scholar-leaders, and eight Christian scholar-leaders met from June 13 to 15, 2007, in Stony Point, N.Y., at a conference sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace and the Churches’ Center for Theology and Public Policy. The purpose of the conference, titled Alternatives to War, was to specify practices within each of the three Abrahamic traditions that could lay the groundwork for a nonviolent program to resolve global conflict and address injustice.

Online Press Kits and News Releases

Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East
February 2008
Authors Scott Lasensky and Daniel Kurtzer conclude that there can be no endgame, two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict without the United States playing an active role in spurring the negotiations.
Go to the Press Kit

How We Missed the Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan
January 2008
Award-winning journalist Roy Gutman weaves a narrative that exposes how and why the U.S. government, the United Nations, and the Western media "missed the story" in the leadup to 9/11.
Go to the Press Kit

View all Online Press Kits and News Releases