“Art is love and love is peace—art is the international language to convey a message,” Syrian painter Rehab Bitar told an IPI-MENA audience at the May 15th opening of an exhibition of artwork conveying messages of peace. Ms. Bitar, the Head of Peace and Culture Bridges Organization in the United States, was one of seventeen […]
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At the center of this darkly comic Broadway play is a powerful lesson in mediation.IPI President Terje Rød-Larsen, who at the time was a social scientist, and Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul planned and orchestrated top-secret, high-level meetings in Norway between the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.Mr. Rød-Larsen’s research on the West Bank and […]
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Painters from the Middle East and North Africa Region donated artwork to the International Peace Institute for the Middle East and North Africa (IPI-MENA) during an “Art for Peace” exhibition hosted in collaboration with Wedad Al Bakr, a Saudi painter and peace advocate.Zakeya Zada, a Bahraini artist, cut the ceremonial ribbon to open the exhibition—dedicated […]
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“Everyone is scrambling around trying to do the possible,” said IPI President Terje Rød-Larsen while reflecting on how an unlikely peace agreement, the Oslo peace accords, was forged between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1993. Sometimes it’s easier to do the impossible, he said, “because you have the whole field to yourself.”Mr. […]
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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey called on the nations of the region to cement regional cooperation and leadership in the fight against terrorism and instability in the Middle East. President Erdoğan was speaking at the International Peace Institute (IPI) Global Leaders Series presentation in Manama, Bahrain, that brought together an audience of more than […]
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Despite the signing of the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) and the appointment of the Presidency Council of the UN-backed Government of National Accord in December 2015, the situation in Libya remains precarious. The political process is extremely fragile, and security threats are ever-present and unpredictable. It is in this context that the Security Council is […]
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A discussion on mediation in the context of the ongoing conflicts in Libya, Syria, and Yemen drew more than 60 participants, including high-level diplomats and United Nations officials, to the Permanent Mission of Germany to the UN on November 30, 2016.The expert group of panelists included UN Under Secretary-General Jamal Benomar, who for 4 years […]
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The violence in the Middle East obfuscates the fact that there exists also a story of peace efforts across the region—a story of small successes, big frustrations, setbacks, and failures. Through these efforts, UN mediators have sought to achieve the often irreconcilable goals of ending violence while facilitating a political transition and reconciling the parties.
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Pierre Krähenbühl, the head of the UN agency responsible for a Palestinian population that has soared from 750,000 people at its inception in 1950 to five million today, said that it was no longer enough to focus on managing the festering crisis but necessary now to try to resolve it.“Surely, this is a time to […]
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On Sunday, September 18, IPI held its Eleventh Ministerial Dinner on the Middle East in its Trygve Lie Center for Peace, Security, and Development. The working dinner drew the participation of foreign ministers, United Nations officials, special representatives of the Secretary- General to countries in the region, heads of humanitarian agencies and other high level […]
Read moreHuman rights activist and lawyer, Razia Sultana, describes her work with the Rohingya population in Myanmar and Bangladesh, relating vivid stories of the brutal violence in the region in recent years, and what she shared with the UN Security…
Desalination in GCC countries cannot be a long-term solution to water scarcity. Rather than primarily focusing on securing supply, GCC governments should also emphasize sustainability of…
AMISOM’s lack of civilian protection and unwillingness to be held to account for collateral civilian casualties has…
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The International Peace Institute is an independent, international not-for-profit think tank with a staff representing more than 20 nationalities, located in New York across from United Nations headquarters. IPI is dedicated to promoting the prevention and resolution of conflicts between and within states by strengthening international peace and security institutions. To achieve its purpose, IPI employs a mix of policy research, convening, publishing and outreach.
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