Mary Hope Schwoebel
Senior Program Officer, Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding
Contact
Please submit all media inquiries to interviews@usip.org or call 202.429.3869.
For all other inquiries, please call 202.457.1700.
Languages:
Workable: Spanish, Somali,
Passable: Portuguese, Guarani
Smattering: French, Swahili
Studying: Pashto
Mary Hope Schwoebel is a senior program officer in the Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding. She holds a Ph.D. in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University and an M.Ed. in adult and non-formal education for international development from the University of California, Davis. Her dissertation was entitled Nation-building in the Lands of the Somalis and compared three state-building and peacebuilding interventions in terms of how they negotiated Somali, Islamic, and Western models of governance and conflict resolution. For the past ten years Mary Hope has worked as a consultant for international organizations. She also conducted peace and conflict assessments and evaluations around the world, including South Asia, East, West, and southern Africa, and elsewhere.
Prior to that she lived and worked in Africa for six years and South America for five years. She has taught peace and conflict studies, international relations, and foreign policy as adjunct faculty at American, Georgetown, and George Mason universities. She has over 25 years of experience as a trainer for multilateral and non-governmental organizations in conflict management, disaster management, humanitarian assistance, democracy and governance, peacebuilding and development. At USIP she has designed and taught courses for universities in Fiji, Kashmir, and Costa Rica; trained international police and peacekeepers from Africa, South America, Europe and South Asia; and trained NGOs in Colombia, Nigeria, and Haiti.
- Having Their Say: Women Protesters Emerge as a Force in the Arab Spring
Q+A with Arabic Knowledge @ Wharton | November 2011
Publications:
- "Peacekeeping, Peacemaking, Peacebuilding," co-authored with Erin McCandless. World at Risk: A Global Issues Source Book (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2008)
- "Towards a Theory, Method, and Practice of Appreciative Inquiry: For Use in Complex Peacebuilding and Development Contexts," co-authored with Erin McCandless. Positive Approaches to Peacebuilding: A Resource for Innovators. Edited by Mohammed Abu Nimer, et al., (PACT Publications, 2002)
- "Creative Marginality: Exploring the Links Between Conflict Resolution and Social Work," co-authored with Jay Rothman and Randi Jean Land. Peace and Conflict Studies (Volume 8, Number 1. May 2001)
- "Stay in Your Own Lane: The Military and NGOs in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies," Security Dialogue (Vol. 29, No. 2, June 1998)
Publications & Tools
July 2012
USIP has established a program, Capacity-Building and Dialogues for Afghan Women, in an effort to reach beyond the capital Kabul and help prepare women elsewhere to play a role in peace and post-conflict processes. Countries: Afghanistan
| Issue Areas: Gender and Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict and Peacekeeping Activities, Youth and Peacebuilding
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September 2011
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News Feature
by Thomas Omestad
In the humanitarian crisis hitting the Horn of Africa, the international community faces a complex set of factors that extend beyond the need to relieve the region’s vast famine and human dislocation. |
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September 2011
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On the Issues
by Mary Hope Schwoebel
Somalia is currently experiencing the worst drought and famine in over half a century. Half of the population (close to four million people) is dependent on food aid, while tens of thousands are estimated to have died since the drought began this past summer. Countries: Africa, Somalia
| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Health and Peacebuilding, Human Rights, Rule of Law
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May 2011
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On the Issues
by Mary Hope Schwoebel
Women's participation in the Arab Spring has been significant, but it remains to be seen, however, if their participation will result in increased opportunities for women in the public sphere when the dust settles. USIP’s Mary Hope Schwoebel discusses the opportunities and challenges for women in the Arab Spring. Countries: Africa, Asia, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen
| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Gender and Peacebuilding, Political Reform
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April 2011
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News Feature
by Gordon Lubold
United States Institute of Peace trainers in March completed a five-day exercise in Nigeria for Nigerian Army peacekeepers who are preparing to deploy across the continent for a host of missions. Countries: Africa, Nigeria
| Issue Areas: Education, Mediation and Facilitation, Negotiation and Diplomacy, Training
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April 2011
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News Feature
by Thomas Omestad
Since early 2010, USIP’s Cross-Border Dialogue Initiative has brought together more than 300 people, teaching the skills of policy advocacy and negotiation and, at the same time, building bridges between communities suffering from endemic violence and separated by a tense national border. Countries: Afghanistan, Asia, Pakistan
| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Mediation and Facilitation, Negotiation and Diplomacy, Political Reform
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April 2011
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On the Issues
by Mary Hope Schwoebel
Amid the upheavals in Yemen, USIP’s Mary Hope Schwoebel discusses the role of women in the political protests and how it is likely to affect their future status. Countries: Asia, Yemen
| Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention, Gender and Peacebuilding, Human Rights, Political Reform
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August 2010
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Peace Brief
by Altaf Ullah Khan and Mary Hope Schwoebel
The flooding and associated devastation that have battered Pakistan since late July 2010 present yet another series of challenges to its government, already contending with violence from extremist groups. The international community would do well to assist the Pakistani government in responding effectively to these challenges. |
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January 2010
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Peace Brief
by Robert M. Perito and Members of USIP's Haiti Team
USIP assesses the damage done by the devastating earthquake, and recommends strategies for Haiti’s recovery and reconstruction. |
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July 2009
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Peace Brief
by Mary Hope Schwoebel
Over the past decade, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) has trained members of police and military forces around the world to prepare them to participate in international peacekeeping operations or to contribute to post-conflict stabilization and rule of law interventions in their own or in other war-torn countries. Most of the training takes place outside the United States, from remote, rugged bases to centrally located schools and academies, from Senegal to Nepal, from Italy to the Philippines. Issue Areas: Training
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March 2009
Over the past 15 years, USIP has supported over 90 projects related to women, conflict, and peacebuilding. From grants to fellowships, from training to education, from working groups to publications, the Institute strives to encourage more practice and scholarly work on women, and seeks to deepen understanding of the role of women in conflict and in peace. |
Events
December 11, 2009
In Muslim tribal cultures, such as in Somalia and Yemen, conflicts traditionally involve tribes, clans, and extended families and are perpetuated through violent revenge, sometimes over generations. Conflict resolution traditionally consists of blood payments, with religious leaders and elders playing the role of mediators. |
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July 31, 2009
Since the internal armed conflict in Guatemala ended in 1996, millions of dollars have been spent on transitional justice, but the state's efforts to create an effective justice system have largely failed -- obliging many Guatemalans to create their own coping mechanisms for war-time atrocities, and severely limiting the effectiveness of ongoing transitional justice efforts. Countries: Guatemala
| Issue Areas: Post-Conflict and Peacekeeping Activities
| Programs: Jennings Randolph Senior Fellowship Program
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September 16, 2008
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