The US diplomatic, defense, and development communities (known as the “3Ds”) increasingly find themselves working together to tackle complex crises. This collaboration has already proved its worth, but how can it be made even more effective? A recent… Read more
Since the Libyan revolution and fall of Muammar Gadhafi in 2011, violent extremist organizations (VEOs) have taken advantage of the subsequent lack of security to secure a foothold in the country. The south, however, has proved resilient to VEO… Read more
Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and current UN Secretary-General António Guterres have both recognized sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by interveners as a risk to peacekeeping operations, which has led to a series of new policy responses. As… Read more
This summer, Afghanistan’s Independent Electoral Commission announced that its long-delayed elections to launch district councils will be held in July 2018. The international community has formally welcomed the statement, noting that district councils… Read more
Despite the increasing body of research on violent extremism, questions remain about why individuals join such groups and why recidivism remains common among those who have undergone deradicalization and reintegration programs. This Peace Brief discusses… Read more
Since Afghanistan’s first presidential election in 2004, massive election fraud and malpractices have been the rule. Confidence in the electoral process among the population is correspondingly low. As this Peace Brief explains, a new biometric voter… Read more
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)—which connects China’s western province of Xinjiang to the Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coastline in Balochistan province—is the first large-scale attempt to bolster economic ties between Beijing and Islamabad, after… Read more
Many peacebuilding interventions seeking to support rule of law get stuck. The reason they get stuck may have little to do with the law and its technical dimensions and more with a tendency to treat certain rule of law systems as if they were orderly,… Read more
The fall of the Syrian city of Raqqa—the capital of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS)’s caliphate—will be a critical defeat for IS. Yet the success of the counter-campaign will ultimately be determined not by the battlefield win, but instead by what… Read more
Nonformal dialogues offer complementary approaches to formal dialogues in national peacemaking efforts in contexts of conflict. As exemplified by the nonformal dialogues in Myanmar, Lebanon, and Nepal examined in this report, nonformal dialogues are able… Read more
Sino-Russian alignment in support of the Assad government in Syria is driven primarily by the mutual goal of preventing regime change and halting the spread of Islamic extremism. However, because Chinese strategic priorities lie elsewhere and Russia’s… Read more
As China’s role in global political and economic affairs has expanded, so has its exposure to international and domestic terrorism. At the same time, it is constrained in its response by two long-held principles—nonintervention and noninterference. This… Read more