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

The Role of the Ministerial Advisor in Security Sector Reform: Navigating Institutional Terrains
April 2009 | USIPeace Briefing | Liz Panarelli
International actors in Security Sector Reform (SSR) are increasingly taking on roles as “advisors” to Ministries of Interior, Defense, and Justice. Rather than directly implement changes necessary for SSR, these advisors must persuasively articulate suggestions to their local counterparts. Advisors’ success depends on their ability to convey recommendations in a manner that makes change acceptable to their advisees.

Land, Property, and the Challenge of Return for Iraq’s Displaced
April 2009 | Special Report | Deborah Isser and Peter Van der Auweraert
Iraq today is faced with a multilayered displacement crisis that is massive in both size and complexity. It is estimated that 3.8 million Iraqis were displaced from their homes from 2003 to 2008, with the majority of them becoming displaced in 2006 and the first half of 2007

The Kurds in Syria: Fueling Separatist Movements in the Region?
April 2009 | Special Report | Radwan Ziadeh
The Kurds of Syria, in contrast to the Kurds of Iraq and Turkey, are little known in the West, but they have similarly strained relations with the state that governs them and face human rights abuses as a minority. The Syrian state’s repression of its Kurdish population, which thus far has not sought a separate state, may contribute to Kurdish claims for self-determination in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.

Conducting Elections in Darfur: Looking ahead to Sudan’s 2009 Elections
March 2009 | USIPeace Briefing | Stephanie Schwartz
With elections planned in Sudan in 2009, the question of how residents of the Darfur region should participate points to a number of challenges that remain unanswered. Is the security situation in Darfur adequate to permit elections?

Resolving the Crisis over Constitutional Interpretation in Afghanistan
March 2009 | USIPeace Briefing | J Alexander Thier and John Dempsey
The debate over where to locate the power to issue constitutional interpretations that would bind the branches of the government began during the constitutional drafting process in 2003. Initially, the draft constitution submitted to President Karzai by the Constitutional Drafting Commission contained provisions for a Constitutional Court, distinct from the Supreme Court.

Reconstructing Gaza – Lessons from Lebanon
March 2009 | USIPeace Briefing | Alistair Harris
As the international community continues to debate humanitarian assistance to Gaza, USIP examines “Reconstructing Gaza – Lessons from Lebanon” by Beirut-based Alistair Harris, a Deployable Civilian Expert for the British Government’s Stabilisation Unit. Harris argues that donors should avoid the temptation to adopt a mechanistic, one size fits all solution. “In the rush to rebuild what was destroyed, it should be remembered,” writes Harris, “that the major catalysts for this conflict were political and economic. As such, the reconstruction effort must ensure that viable employment initiatives form part of the post-conflict stabilization plan. This was very much a man-made humanitarian disaster,” concludes the report. “If the underlying issues are not addressed, unfortunately renewed conflict would seem inevitable.”

Building Blocks for Citizenship and a Peaceful Transition in Sudan
March 2009 | USIPeace Briefing | Linda Bishai, Kelly Campbell and Jacki Wilson
Sudan’s upcoming elections in 2009 raise hopes and concerns for the country’s future. According to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in 2005 between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Sudan is scheduled to hold national and state level elections in 2009.

Mapping Peace between Syria and Israel
March 2009 | Special Report | Frederic C. Hof
Although the Palestinian-Israeli “track” of the Arab-Israeli dispute remains at the heart of the conflict between Israel and its neighbors, the very complexity of that track (Jerusalem, refugees, borders, etc.) has led some to consider the Israeli-Syrian track to be relatively simple and straightforward. While simple it is not and straightforward it is only in relative terms, the Syrian-Israeli conflict can indeed be settled without prejudice to the central act of the Arab-Israeli drama.

The Private Sector in Security Sector Reform: Essential But Not Yet Optimized
January 2009 | USIPeace Briefing | Robert Perito
While the U.S. and world economies are slowing markedly, Security Sector Reform (SSR) is a growth industry for the private sector. U.S. government employees may set SSR policy and design projects, but implementation is extensively outsourced to private contractors.

Dr. Ali Al-Dabbagh's Iraq-based Formula for Regional Cooperation
January 2009 | USIPeace Briefing | Elizabeth Detwiler
USIP recently hosted Dr. Ali Al-Dabbagh, official spokesman for the Iraqi government, He unveiled a far-reaching regional initiative to increase economic and strategic cooperation in the Middle East. The initiative represents a new level of consciousness and independence in Iraqi foreign policy.

Islamic Peacemaking Since 9/11
January 2009 | Special Report | David Smock and Qamar-ul Huda
Muslims in general and Muslim leaders particularly have often been severely criticized for not more energetically condemning the violent acts of Muslim extremists. The uninformed often assume that extremists represent Islam’s mainstream.

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.

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