General Announcements - October 26, 2010
IPI Opens New Office in Vienna
Sharpening its international profile and broadening its reach to Europe and beyond, the International Peace Institute (IPI) has announced the establishment of a new office in Vienna.
IPI has had a forty-year partnership with Austria, manifested by the annual Vienna Seminar that brings together policymakers, academics, and military experts to discuss pressing issues of peace and security, and to explore ways of improving the global system of conflict prevention and risk management.
Vienna, a traditional center for diplomacy and multilateral negotiations, has become a hub for security issues and home to a number of regional and international agencies. These include the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
“IPI will now be present at the heart of Europe and will be able to plug directly into this critical network in order to leverage the work that it does in New York on conflict prevention, transnational threats, nonproliferation, and energy security,” said Terje Rød-Larsen, IPI’s President.
In addition to carrying out research and providing policy advice, the Vienna office will host roundtable meetings and high-profile speakers on issues related to international peace and security. As at IPI in New York, the office will be a place where government officials, diplomats, members of civil society, and academics can gather and discuss urgent security challenges and exchange views candidly in a trustful atmosphere.
An independent, international, not-for-profit think tank, IPI was founded in 1970 in New York and since its inception has occupied offices in the Church Center building across First Avenue from United Nations headquarters. The Vienna office is the first that IPI has created outside of New York.
IPI was originally known as the International Peace Academy (IPA) at a time when its principal function was training military and civilian professionals in peacekeeping. The mission today is a broader one of promoting the prevention and settlement of conflicts between and within states by strengthening international peace and security institutions. To achieve its purpose, IPI employs a mix of research, policy advice, convening, publishing, and outreach.
IPI’s new Vienna office is located in the Palais Harrach in the historic center of the Austrian capital, close to diplomatic missions, the Austrian foreign ministry and the headquarters of a number of international and nongovernmental organizations.
Working out of the new office at the outset are Andrea Pfanzelter, Director of the Vienna Office, and Walter Kemp, Director for Europe and Central Asia.
The Vienna office address is Freyung 3, 1010 Vienna. The phone number is +43-1-533-8881.
The Global Observatory
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A union between Persian Gulf countries the along the lines of the European Union may be a long way from being achieved.
Key Global Events to Watch in May
A list of key upcoming meetings and events with implications for global affairs.
The Global Observatory is a new website by IPI, providing timely analysis on peace and security issues, interviews with leading policymakers, interactive maps, and more.
Recent Events
May 10, 2012
Arbour: What the Rule of Law Means
“In my understanding of the rule of law, fundamentally, what the rule of law means is that it embraces the principle of equality before the law,” Louise Arbour, president of the International Crisis Group (ICG), told an IPI audience on May 10, 2012. Ms. Arbour outlined that this means that no one is above the law and everyone has both equal protection and equal benefit of the law. 
May 03, 2012
Shachtman: Cyber Threats Akin to South Bronx, Not Pearl Harbor
“There’s not a danger of a cyber Pearl Harbor… it’s more like the South Bronx circa 1999, where there’s a danger that it becomes such a tough neighborhood that no one wants to set up shop there and people move out,” Noah Shachtman, editor of the Danger Room blog at Wired magazine and non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution, told an IPI audience at a panel on cyber security on May 3, 2011.
April 27, 2012
Preventing Conflicts in Africa: The Role of Early Warning and Response Systems
An April 27th roundtable discussion at IPI titled “Preventing Conflicts in Africa: The Role of Early Warning and Response Systems” examined the progress, prospects and challenges of regional and international early warning and response mechanisms to monitor, anticipate, and mitigate potential conflict situations in Africa.