The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is America’s only government-created and government-sponsored organization dedicated to the study and promotion of international peace.  According to information published on the Institute’s website, it is an independent and non-partisan federal institution whose main goals are the prevention, management, and peaceful resolution of international conflicts.  USIP works to achieve its goals by various means, including through training programs, distributing grants, and conducting research.  The Institute publishes a bi-monthly newsletter called “Peace Watch”, which provides news of its sponsored events and projects.

 

 

The United States Institute of Peace was established in 1984 when President Ronald Reagan signed into law an act of Congress calling for its creation.  Today, the Institute is governed by a board of directors composed of 12 members appointed by the president of the United States.  The board includes 3 ex-officio members as well.  They are the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the President of the National Defense University. Together, these board members elect the president of the Institute.  As a means of guaranteeing the board’s political neutrality, it is prohibited from having more than eight voting members from the same political party.  Also, the 12 members appointed by the president cannot work in the federal government and must be experts in the field of peace and conflict resolution.

 

While USIP can accept donations from private groups and individuals, the majority of its funding comes from the United States Congress.  In 2005 the Institute received roughly $23 million.  It expects to receive a similar amount from Congress in 2006.  Significantly, the USIP budget requests for the last two years explicitly call for funding to “improve relations between the United States and Muslims abroad,” and to promote the democratization of the “broader Middle East.”  These requests indicate USIP’s increased focus on the Muslim and Arab worlds in its research and programs.

 

 

Today the United States Institute of Peace employs roughly 50 scholars specializing in fields as diverse as arms control, conflict management, democratization, human rights, international law, terrorism, and U.S. foreign policy.  USIP also offers fellowships and grants to scholars who are interested in conducting research on issues related to peace and conflict management.  In addition, the Institute funds trainings and workshops focused on enhancing the conflict-management abilities of those living in conflict-ridden regions of the world.
 
USIP does not stop at conducting research – it also publishes and disseminates it.  Through its publications division, the Institute publishes several Arabic-language reports, covering issues such as the relationship between Turkey and Iraq or the promotion of Middle East democratization.  It also publishes books produced by its scholars.  Books published by the Institute include “How Israeli’s and Palestinians Negotiate,” by Tamara Cofman Wittes, and “The Arab World After Desert Storm,” by Muhammad Faour.  Both USIP’s special reports and its books reach a wide audience of Arabic and English speakers at all levels of government, academia, and the private sector.

 

 

Among the most interesting and significant developments to take place at the United States Institute of Peace recently has been the establishment of two new initiatives - the Focus on Iraq Initiative and the Muslim World Initiative.

 

Through its Focus on Iraq Initiative, USIP works with Iraqis to “prevent and reduce interethnic and interreligious violence, speed up stabilization and democratization, and reduce the need for a continuing US presence in Iraq.”  It does this through the training of Iraqi national security officials and through offering small grants to local Iraqi NGO’s and civil society organizations that work to enhance the practice of democracy in Iraq.  The Initiative has also conducted research and produced special reports, such as a report entitled “Iraq Elections Scenarios – Anticipating Alternative Futures.”

 

According to its website, the Muslim World Initiative seeks “to address the vital foreign policy and national security challenges associated with the ‘Muslim World’.”  The goals of the initiative include promoting peace within the Muslim world and fostering U.S. engagement with the Muslim world through “informed policy guidance.”  To achieve these goals, the Initiative believes in “bridging the divide” between the U.S. and Muslims, “mobilizing the moderates” by supporting those in the region who support non-violent means of conflict resolution, and “marginalizing the militants” by working to isolate those who encourage violence and extremism.  The Initiative attempts to fulfill these goals through research on developing a long-term U.S. strategy for combating the threat of Islamic militancy and by distributing small grants to projects that focus on the Muslim world.

The United States Institute of Peace proclaims several lofty and challenging goals, especially with regard to the Middle East.  These goals raise several questions, especially considering the fact that USIP receives the majority of its funding from the U.S. government.  Is USIP truly non-partisan? Is it succeeding in carrying out its missions both in the Middle East and in the rest of the world?

 

In terms of the non-partisan nature of the Institute, the rule stipulating that no more than 8 voting members of the board can belong to one political party works to preserve an ideological and political balance among the Institute’s directors.  At the same time, the fact that the president of the United States exercises sole discretion in appointing members to the board has resulted in one particularly controversial appointment.

 

In April of 2003, President Bush nominated Dr. Daniel Pipes, who holds a Ph.D. in medieval Islamic history from Harvard University.  His appointment to the board was hotly contested by many Muslim and Arab-American groups in the United States, as well as by several Democratic senators.  These groups accused Pipes of being an “Islamophobe” who spreads “hatred and bigotry” about Muslims.  Those who defended his appointment said that his work on the threat of Islamic militancy and terrorism, however controversial, was valuable for understanding the Muslim world.  In the end, Pipes received Senate confirmation and served on the board from 2003 to January of this year.  Throughout his tenure, Pipes achieved no significant changes to the goals or the functioning of USIP.

 

Attempting to judge whether or not the Institute actually succeeds in achieving its goals of promoting peace and helping to resolve international conflict is significantly more difficult.  Of course USIP cannot bear sole responsibility for guaranteeing the realization of these goals.  Achieving the peaceful resolution of international conflict stands well beyond the means of a single government, let alone a single institute.  In the interest of fairness, one can say that USIP’s willingness to tackle the problem of fostering international peace is a noble one, and that its various programs and projects – workshops, research, and publications – are steps in the right direction.  At the same time, while glib responses to complex problems may work for requesting money for federal funding, actually making a difference and helping to solve these problems requires concrete plans and the means to implement them.  USIP provides important and relevant information to the American academic and policy communities, but it is a means to an end, not the panacea for solving global conflict.