About Us

USIP is the independent, nonpartisan conflict management center created by Congress to prevent and mitigate international conflict without resorting to violence. USIP works to save lives, increase the government's ability to deal with conflicts before they escalate, reduce government costs, and enhance our national security.

Working to Save Lives
Strengthening the Government’s Ability to Manage Conflicts Before they Escalate
Reducing Government Costs
Enhancing National Security

Working to Save Lives

USIP works to reduce the costs and risks for American military and civilians deployed to conflict areas abroad by training them to peacefully mitigate and manage conflicts. Our work helps to create safe and stable environments for people living and Americans working in these regions.

In Iraq, the tribal reconciliation USIP mediated in Mahmoudiya served as the model for the U.S. reconciliation strategy that dramatically reduced American military and Iraqi civilian casualties, as reported by TIME magazine. “Over the next six months Iraqi civilian deaths in the area fell 75 percent—from 1,200 per month to 300 per month; while US military deaths fell from a dozen per month to zero.” (TIME, 19 October 2007)
USIP played a leading role in preventing electoral violence in South Sudan and continues to help keep the Sudan Peace Accord on track. USIP has been working with tribal chiefs, state judges, police and other stakeholders to improve cooperation and to develop an integrated approach to the rule of law, so that South Sudan can move beyond its history of violence. | The Two Sudans
Since 2002, USIP has analyzed Afghanistan’s justice systems and recommended methods to strengthen the rule of law. USIP is helping to bridge the gap between informal and formal justice sectors and thereby prevent village and district-level disputes from spiraling out of control.

Strengthening the Government’s Ability to Manage Conflicts Before they Escalate

Through its professional training programs and networks around the world – and its collaboration with military, diplomats, development specialists, NGOs and IOs – USIP is innovative and agile, delivering effective programs at minimal cost.

USIP is working in Libya training hundreds of mediators and facilitators in postwar conflict prevention.
USIP leads the Libya Stabilization Team’s Civil Society Committee–constitution making, transitional justice, women rights, education.
USIP actively supports the State Department’s Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program, teaching conflict mediation and negotiation techniques for African security personnel for peacekeeping missions across the continent.
The State Department credited a USIP conflict-negotiation workshop with helping defuse a conflict between the Government of Niger and the rebel Movement of Nigeriens for Justice group. The insecurity had devastated sectors of Niger's economy since its beginning in 2007, but several rounds of peace talks following the workshop helped restore stability to the region.

USIP created the International Network to Promote the Rule of Law (INPROL), connecting judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement personnel, legal advisers, and other judicial officials to turn lessons learned into lessons applied.

USIP created and continues to build networks of facilitators solving community-level disputes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Libya. Once trained by USIP, these in-country facilitators expand the local capacity to resolve conflicts without violence and prevent local disputes from escalating into broader conflicts. | USIP In the Field

Reducing Government Costs

USIP’s programs are a less costly, effective way to limit and manage global conflicts.

USIP led electoral violence prevention workshops in Haiti and Sudan.
USIP trains and equips local populations in places like Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya with problem solving and conflict resolution skills. | Training in Zones of Conflict
USIP advises in constitution writing - in Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Nepal, Democratic Republic of Congo - to address post-conflict judicial and transitional issues. | Rule of Law
In eastern Afghanistan, USIP established Dispute Resolution Councils in the volatile Kunar and Nangarhar provinces. Since March 2010, these councils have participated in and recorded the resolution of more than 160 cases. By strengthening existing traditional justice mechanisms and training the local populations, USIP is helping prevent local disputes from escalating into broader conflicts in an efficient and effective way.

Enhancing National Security

USIP provides our policy makers with non-partisan national security, defense and foreign policy analysis and expertise.

USIP organized and administered the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, whose report helped pave the way for the strategy that stabilized Iraq.
USIP facilitated the Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel, a bipartisan congressional commission co-chaired by former Secretary of Defense William Perry and former National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley. It conducted an assessment of the assumptions, strategy, findings, and risks described in the Department of Defense’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR).
USIP facilitated the comprehensive review of U.S. nuclear policy under the aegis of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States.
USIP co-convened the Genocide Prevention Task Force, which stressed early intervention and the need to develop international partnerships to respond to emerging crises. Many of the Task Force’s recommendations were adopted by the U.S. government in August 2011.
USIP teamed up with the U.S. Army to compile a manual to help individuals in all areas of government to prepare for the transition from war to peace that comes at the conclusion of any conflict. This practical “how-to” guide was co-written by USIP, the U.S. Army’s Combined Arms Center and the Simon Center for the Study of Interagency Cooperation. It is now considered the blueprint for creating successful transitions around the world. | Interagency Handbook for Transitions
Congress directed USIP to create a bipartisan task force to assess whether the United Nations was fulfilling its mandate and how the international body could be improved. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell served as co-chairs. | Task Force on the United Nations