The United States Institute of Peace is an independent national institute founded by Congress. Its mission is to help prevent and resolve violent conflicts abroad, which pose risks for U.S. and global security. USIP works directly in conflict zones with local partners to prevent conflicts from turning to bloodshed and to end it when they do. The Institute provides training, analyses and other support to people, organizations and governments working to build peace.
Download About the United States Institute of Peace factsheet (PDF).
USIP Convenes Experts And Practitioners In Peacebuilding To:
- Improve global efforts to counter violent extremism and promote religious tolerance.
- Strengthen the rule of law in chaotic, post-conflict settings.
- Rigorously test peacebuilding methods to provide the U.S. government with productive, cost-effective tools to end global violence.
- Use traditional and social media and emerging technologies to improve the tracking, prevention and resolution of violent conflict.
USIP Works To Advance Peace And U.S. National Security:
- In Iraq, USIP and its partners facilitated peace agreements in Mahmoudiyah (2007) and Tikrit (2015) that reduced communal warfare in those regions and the need for U.S. or Iraqi troops. Hundreds of thousands of displaced residents returned home. USIP is expanding its Iraqi partners’ capacity for such peacemaking.
- In Afghanistan, USIP research on traditional Afghan systems of conflict resolution helped shape stabilization efforts by U.S. and NATO forces. The Institute is researching the local drivers of violent extremism and working to reduce recruitment by the Taliban and ISIS. With Afghan universities USIP is training students, and developing curricula nationwide, on conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
- USIP has helped Pakistan develop a national strategy for community policing against violent extremism, and better responses by police and courts to terrorism cases. USIP supports local partners who use film, public art, and peace education in schools to oppose the growing intolerance of diversity.
- In Colombia, USIP helps broaden a peace process that has yielded an accord to end more than 50 years of civil war. By offering technical and financial help to local organizations, the Institute has enlarged the role of civil society, including women, youth and minority groups, in the peace process. USIP serves as a trusted source of analysis and a liaison among all parties.
- In Nigeria, USIP is convening government officials—notably the country’s influential state governors—with civic leaders and scholars to build a national consensus on strategies to reduce the causes of violent conflicts in the north, such as the Boko Haram insurgency.
- In 10 countries across Africa and the Middle East—including Nigeria, Kenya, Tunisia and Sudan—USIP’s Generation Change Fellows program provides training and support to strengthen emerging youth civil society leaders working against violence in their communities.
Founded in 1984, USIP is funded by Congress and governed by a bipartisan Board of Directors. USIP staff work abroad or at the Institute’s headquarters in Washington, which faces the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and symbolizes our nation’s commitment to peace.