African Politics, African Peace report cover on flag background

The most extensive review the African Union's peace missions ever conducted. Access the report on the project website.

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Access case study and thematic research that forms the most extensive review of AU peace missions ever conducted.

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Will famine and conflict-induced mass starvation end in our lifetime? Access the new WPF dataset, Famine Trends.

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How Mass Atrocities End book cover against soft background

Edited by Bridget Conley-Zilkic, the book analyses the processes, decisions, and factors that end mass atrocities.

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The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa book cover

Alex de Waal's new book delves into the business of politics in the turbulent, war-torn countries of north-east Africa.

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Access the second cartoon series by Alex de Waal and Victor Ndula on the political marketplace in South Sudan.

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Stimulating a new conversation about corruption and the global arms business.

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Updates
In the News

The End of Interventionism

Alex de Waal photo World Peace Foundation Executive Director Alex de Waal reflects on the two recently released reports that outline the deeply flawed and disastrous decision making that drove Western interventions into Libya and Iraq.  Read this powerful article in the October issue of Boston Review.

WPF Fellows

New WPF Fellows

Headshot of Sam Perlo-FreemanWe are thrilled to welcome Dr. Sam Perlo-Freeman as a World Peace Foundation Senior Fellow.  He is currently Senior Researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) working on issues of military expenditure, arms industry and arms trade.  We look forward to having Dr. Perlo-Freeman join the WPF staff in December 2016 as the Project Manager for the Global Arms Business and Corruption program. 


Research

Peace Missions in Africa

African Pplitics African Peace report coverWPF report, African Politics, African Peace charts an agenda for peace in Africa, focusing on how the African Union can implement its norms and use its instruments to prevent and resolve armed conflicts. It is an independent report of the WPF, supported by the African Union, and is the most extensive review of the African Union’s peace missions ever conducted. It is based on detailed case studies and cross-cutting research, and draws on consultations with leading experts, peacekeepers, and mediators.
Research

African peace research

Access the core thematic and case study research that makes "African Politics, African Peace" the most extensive review of African Union peace missions ever conducted. Topics include: The African Peace and Security Architecture, mandates and doctrine for peace missions, unconstitutional changes in government, preventing and responding to mass atrocities, protection from sexual and gender based violence, sanctions, mediation, and over 20 case study profiles.
Analysis

What went wrong in South Sudan

Alex de Waal Al Jazeera interviewSee Alex de Waal on Al Jazeera's Inside Story and access his Occasional Paper on South Sudan, published  March 24, 2016 which provides additional background on the mounting threats that contributed to  the outbreak of violence on July 8.
Video

Practical Security: Security Sector Reform in Stormy Waters

New WPF Publication

How Mass Atrocities End

Book cover How Mass Atrocities End sunrays breaking through cloudsNow available through Cambridge Press, How Mass Atrocities End presents an analysis of the processes, decisions, and factors that help bring about the end of mass atrocities. It includes qualitatively rich case studies from Burundi, Guatemala, Indonesia, Sudan, Bosnia, and Iraq, drawing patterns from wide-ranging data. How Mass Atrocities End offers a much needed correction to the popular “salvation narrative” framing mass atrocity in terms of good and evil.

WPF Publication

The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa

Political Marketplace book cover stacks of moneyAlex de Waal's latest book draws on his thirty-year career in Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, including experience as a participant in high-level peace talks, to provide a unique and compelling account of how these countries leaders run their governments, conduct their business, fight their wars and, occasionally, make peace.

 


In Memoriam

In Memoriam, for Fred Thorne

Fred Thorne image WPF Chairman Peter Blum memorializes Fred Thorne, former WPF Trustee who recently died, stating, "Fred was wise and warm, funny, tough-minded, loyal, savvy as could be, and surprisingly humble."
WPF Supported Project

Remembering the Ones We Lost

WPF is proud to support the work of South Sudanese civil society actors as they document the names of people killed in South Sudan's conflicts since 1955. As the website states, "This project is designed for one purpose: to honor the memory of each person who has died or gone missing during conflict in South Sudan."
Publication

South Sudan Occasional Paper

New analysis by Alex de Waal argues that South Sudan today is a collapsed political marketplace. He also warns that the convergent economic, security and political crises mean that South Sudan is entering an extremely dangerous phase.

Blog

Special Treatment: UK Government support for the arms trade and industry

  • We are pleased to draw to your attention a new report by Sam Perlo-Freeman, project manager for our program on the Global Arms Business and Corruption. The report, "Special Treatment: UK Government support for the arms trade and industry," was authored by Perlo-Freeman while he was at SIPRI, who describes it thus: "The arms industry and market, in the UK as in most other significant western arms-producing countries, has a unique status. Although its production capabilities are privately owned, it has the national government as its primary customer. Unlike other industries, especially in the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ economies, it is the subject of active government industrial policy."
  • Policy Memo: The ‘Regional Protection Force’ for South Sudan

  • On 11 November 2016, the World Peace Foundation held consultations in Addis Ababa with policymakers and experts on the proposed deployment of a ‘Regional Protection Force’ (RPF) for South Sudan. A policy memo summarizing those consultations is now available on the African Peace Missions website.

    You can read an excerpt from the policy memo below.

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  • The foreign policy debate I’d like to see

  • Security: the unmentionable debate

    While there are genuine points of disagreement between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump, the centrality of ‘security’ is not one of them. I wish this were not the case.

    Both candidates seem to agree that security ought to be the basis of foreign (or even domestic) policy decision-making. They differ, [...]