“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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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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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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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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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 […]
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Tarek Osman, author of a new book, Islamism: What It Means for the Middle East and the World, emphasized that militant Islamism is not an entirely new phenomenon, but the Islamic State (ISIS)’s particular brand of it is.Militant Islamism dates back at least half a century, he said, but what has changed in the past […]
Read moreMediation theory and practice now incorporates the idea of multi-track diplomacy and the fact that each conflict needs to be addressed at a…
If CAR is to truly make progress toward achieving the 2030 Agenda, it should…
The lack of monitoring and evaluation is a problem for all of a peacekeeping mission’s activities, but it’s a particular gap for POC.
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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.
The Global Observatory provides timely analysis on trends and issues related to global security.
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