Meeting Notes - November 17, 2011

New IPI Meeting Note: Elections and Stability in West Africa

This meeting note summarizes the discussions at a conference organized by the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) in Praia, Cape Verde on May 18-20, 2011. The conference addressed the need for a sustained effort to strengthen electoral processes in West Africa as a means to consolidate peace and democracy in the region.  

Policy Papers - October 12, 2011

Termites at Work: Transnational Organized Crime and State Erosion in Kenya

The threat posed by organized crime is not confined to serious crimes such as racketeering, the global drug trade, or human trafficking. For many developing countries and fragile states, powerful transnational criminal networks constitute a direct threat to the state itself, not through open confrontation but by penetrating state institutions through bribery and corruption and by subverting or undermining them from within. This paper examines whether Kenya faces such a threat.  

Policy Papers - May 26, 2011

IPI Report: The Security Sector in Côte d’Ivoire

A new IPI report identifies the security sector in Côte d’Ivoire as a root of a decade of crises there and discusses how comprehensive security-sector reform is a key to preventing a return to armed conflict in the future.  

Meeting Notes - May 23, 2011

The Future of South Sudan

While this is an exciting period for the people of South Sudan, the future presents them (and their neighbors in the North) with many difficult challenges. The status of Abyei and postreferendum issues between North and South—such as citizenship, oil sharing, border demarcation, currency, and debts, among others—are yet to be resolved.  

Policy Papers - May 16, 2011

Renewing MONUSCO’S Mandate: What Role Beyond the Elections?

Should the UN Security Council limit the role of MONUSCO to the protection of civilians in eastern Congo, or should it expand its mandate in an attempt to enforce democratic principles before the elections, at the risk of confronting the incumbent regime?  

Policy Papers - October 27, 2010

The Sudan Referenda: What Role for International Actors?

On January 9, 2011, Sudan is scheduled to hold two referenda in accordance with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended the twenty-two-year civil war between north and south. This issue brief highlights the main actors and challenges in the referenda preparations.  

Policy Papers - July 02, 2010

Election-Related Disputes and Political Violence in Africa

Elections are the hallmark of representative democracy, allowing the people’s regular input in choices about leaders and policy. Yet they are also competitive processes, unleashing conflict and tensions that, if not constructively managed, could potentially destabilize the fabric of states and societies.  

Meeting Notes - January 29, 2010

Operationalizing the African Standby Force

In Kigali, Rwanda last year, the International Peace Institute, the African Union, and the United Nations convened a high-level African civilian and military leaders’ retreat to discuss the challenges surrounding the operationalization of the African Standby Force.  

Policy Papers - November 25, 2009

Pursuing the Lord's Resistance Army

In 2008, the Ugandan military pursued the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a northern Ugandan rebel group, into neighboring Congo during the military incursion known as “Operation Lightning Thunder.”  

Policy Papers - October 14, 2009

Drug Trafficking Through West Africa

An invisible tide is rising on the shores of West Africa, creeping into its slums, its banks, its courts, its barracks, and its government ministries.