Latest Updates

Sustaining Peace and Prevention: Comparing Responses to Crises in Gambia and Burundi

UN Photo

This workshop was the fourth in the “Applying Sustaining Peace” series, and focused on how to conceptualize prevention through a sustaining peace lens. Later this year, the Secretary-General’s forthcoming report on Sustaining Peace will further explore and define sustaining peace. This workshop drew on two recent and interesting cases, the ECOWAS intervention in Gambia and the lack of regional or international intervention in Burundi. Discussing processes and progress in both countries, workshop participants analyzed the role of regional and international actors in prevention.

Read more
Apr 17, 2017
Center on International Cooperation
Sub-Saharan Africa
United Nations
Peace and Security

Democratise or disintegrate: How the AU can help South Sudan

Amanda Lucey, ISS, Sudan, Liezelle Kumalo

© UN Photo

The implementation of South Sudan’s latest peace agreement appears to be at a standstill. Insecurity, food shortages and the breakdown in governance have forced more than 1.5 million people to flee the country. President Salva Kiir’s announcement of a forthcoming national dialogue offers some hope. Yet people are divided on the legitimacy of the process: is this a ruse to detract attention from important reforms, or is it an opportunity to finally broaden the political process in South Sudan? External actors, including the African Union (AU), are also at odds with one another.

Read more
Mar 22, 2017
Amanda Lucey, Liezelle Kumalo
Sub-Saharan Africa
Humanitarian Crises, United Nations
Peace and Security

The Strategic Chain: Linking Pakistan, India, China, and the United States

©Brookings Institution

Considerable policy analysis has been devoted to bilateral strategic relationships between Pakistan and India, India and China, and China and the United States. But the strategic dynamics among these four nuclear powers cannot be understood or effectively addressed on a strictly bilateral basis. While Pakistan responds strategically to India, India responds both to Pakistan and China, which in turn responds both to India and the United States.

Read more
Mar 02, 2017
Robert Einhorn, WPS Sidhu
China, United States, South Asia, India, Pakistan
India, Pakistan, South Asia

Partnering for sustainable peace in Liberia

Institute for Security Studies, Liberia

Liberia is at a pivotal point in its transition to a peaceful democracy. In October 2017 the country will have its first ‘open seat’ elections. The incumbent, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, will step down and hand over power to the leader of one of the 22 political parties that are currently participating in the election. Moreover, despite security fears for the elections, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has downsized from over 15 000 military troops in 2007 to around 1 000 soldiers in 2016 (see Figure 1).

Read more
Feb 21, 2017
Amanda Lucey, Liezelle Kumalo
Sub-Saharan Africa
United Nations
Peace and Security

Restructuring the UN Secretariat to Strengthen Preventative Diplomacy and Peace Operations

Alexandra Novosseloff, Sarah Cliffe, Restructuring the UN Secretariat

Since 1945, the United Nations has helped support many successful peace processes and protected millions of civilians around the world.  Peace operations deliver results: research estimates suggest that the presence of a UN peace keeping mission can reduce the risk of relapse into conflict by 75 – 85 percent; and that larger deployments diminish the scale of violence and protect civilians in the midst of fighting.  Peace operations can be highly cost effective, with one General Audit Office assessment finding the cost to be roughly half of what a bilateral stabilization operation would cost.  Different types of peace operations - from mediation and special envoys through to multidimensional peace-keeping and specialized justice and emergency health missions - have helped end long running conflicts and prevented violence from escalating or recurring in situations as diverse as Burkina Faso, Cambodia, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Guatemala, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Namibia, Sierra Leone and Timor-Leste. 

Read more
Feb 14, 2017
Sarah Cliffe, Alexandra Novosseloff
United Nations
Multilateral Reform, Peace and Security

Pages

Programs in Focus

  • Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

    China-U.S. Cooperation in Central and South Asia

    This publication examines the main cooperation fields between China and the US in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the post-NATO period. In doing so, this study looks at the initiation of various bilateral joint projects as a distinctive turning point in China-US relations. It argues that existence of such bilateral projects and cooperation in this region does not only produce added value for the countries in question but also have the potential to enhance the mutual relations between China and US. This study also reveals the main common priorities and practices between China and the US and concludes that they have a partial convergence in their attitude towards the infrastructure projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

  • Congo Research Group

    All the President's Wealth: The Kabila Family Business

    For the past 20 months, the Congo Research Group has documented the vast and eclectic business portfolio of Joseph Kabila, the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and his family. This report presents our conclusions, based almost entirely on legal documents.

    You can find the whole report and examine the underlying documents here

  • Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies

    The Roadmap for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies: A Call to Action to Change our World

    The roadmap was developed by the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a group of member states, global partnerships, international organizations, and other partners.

    It is available in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. For a summary, see the overview and presentation.

    The Pathfinders group is convened by the governments of Brazil, Sierra Leone, and Switzerland, with support from the Center on International Cooperation.

  • Peace and Security

    Global Peace Operations Review

    The Global Peace Operations Review is a website providing analysis and data on the spectrum of issues surrounding global peace and security, including civilian-led peacemaking and peacebuilding as well as uniformed peacekeeping by the United Nations, regional organizations and ad-hoc coalitions. The site’s objective is to contribute to the effectiveness of all peace operations.

    We seek to provide the most comprehensive overview of multilateral contributions to conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and post-conflict peacebuilding. In doing so, we seek to integrate thematic and cross-cutting issues including, but not limited to, the women, peace and security agenda and countering violent extremism.