PW Winter2011

UNITED STATES INSTITUTE OF PEACE 1

INSIDE 4 Conflict-SensitiveReportinginIraq 5 PeacebuildingGoesMobilein

Afghanistan 6 BeyondtheBeltwayPeacebuilding 7 USIPExtranets:BuildingGlobal

Communities 8 VirtualGamesforRealWorldPeace 9 PeaceMedia:Find,Engage,ShareOnline 10 HowWilltheRevolutionBeBlogged

andTweeted? 12 GrantsatWorkAroundtheWorld 14 EngagingtheWorld 16 ConveningPower 19 PeopleontheMove

Harnessing the Power of Media to Build Peace

media have become more powerful than ever before.

So how can we harness this power for a better, safer world?

For decades, policymakers, nongov-ernmental organization workers and me-dia people have debated the role of media in conflict management. Nearly everyone seems to recognize media’s potential to promote conflict, based on centuries of propaganda and hate speech. But its poten-tial to prevent conflict is much less under-stood and more controversial. Suggestions that news and current affairs coverage be more “conflict sensitive” or that drama be encouraged to promote “mutual under-standing” across ethnic or religious lines run into a hailstorm of criticism for under-

In Colombia, a Facebook group helps draw millions of people into the streets to march against the rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In Pak-istan, Taliban leader Maulvi Fazlullah calls for more suicide bombings on video via cell phones. In Dubai and Detroit, university students sign up for Skype-based intercul-tural dialogues. In Iran, Green Movement protestors use Twitter to stay ahead of the government crackdown. In Nigeria, pro-ducers use a fast-paced TV and radio drama series to model peaceful problem solving as an alternative to tribal violence.

Hardly a day goes by when we do not hear about someone using media in an ef-fort either to promote peace or conflict. Modern warfare is as much a battle for pub-lic opinion as it is for territory or wealth;

In June 2009, a BBC Persian producer watches as journalists file dispatches about the Iranian elections. (Credit: AP Photos/Simon Dawson)

By Sheldon Himelfarb

UNItED StatES INStItUtE of PEacE

PeaceWatch

Winter 2011

&

me·di·a

1. a pl. of medium.2. (usually used with a plural verb) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or in-fluence people widely.

—Dictionary.com

continued page 2 >>

Media, Technology, & conflicT

2 PeaceWatch


Conflict resolution is now mainstream, •no longer the province of peace activists and left-wingers. The Department of De-fense effectively incorporated this prin-ciple in its U.S. Army Field Manual 3-07, laying out its new doctrine for stability operations. Similarly, the “smart power” theory—of which conflict resolution is one powerful component—has received enthusiastic support from the U.S. secre-tary of state and the president.In recent years, hard and soft science re- •search has validated that media—and not just blatant hate media—are a significant factor in intergroup conflict. Witness the latest work of neuroscientists studying media’s impact on brain function, as well as an abundance of social scientists’ in-terviews with jihadists and other violent extremists. In addition, there is extensive evidence of the connection between vio-lent behavior and children’s increased ex-posure to violent media.

For USIP, these new realities go to the core of our work today: Can we seize the moment? Can we leverage these fundamen-tal changes in the landscape to amplify the power of media to promote peace above its power to promote violent conflict?

With its increasing investment in this field, USIP aims to do just that. Efforts to understand the role of media and technol-ogy in conflict management has been a key

part of the Institute’s work for most of its 25 years, with its Virtual Diplomacy Series, grants for innumerable media projects and support for the work of Jennings Randolph fellows like Gabriel Weimann (“Terror on the Internet” http://bookstore.usip.org/books/AuthorDetail.aspx?ID=11209) and award-winning journalist Roy Gutman (“How We Missed the Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Highjacking of Afghanistan” http://www.usip.org/publica-tions/how-we-missed-story).

But the last two years have seen an ex-ponential increase in the Institute’s work in this field. In 2008, the Institute created two Centers of Innovation—Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding and Science, Technol-ogy and Peacebuilding—that have tack-led the full range of issues associated with this brave new world, from media-based incitement in Iraq (see page 4 for more on Iraq) to mobile phones in Afghanistan (see page 5) to crisis mapping in Haiti. And most recently the Grants Program has an-nounced the creation of a strand of funding dedicated exclusively to advancing under-standing of the relationship between com-munications and peacebuilding. (See page 12 for the Grants Program story).

This field is young, for it was only in the early 1990s—when the media played an in-tegral role in the Rwandan genocide and the Balkan wars—that the international com-

mining principles of journalistic objectiv-ity and artistic freedom. Consequently, recommendations for media reform prof-fered by bodies such as the United Nations Alliance for Civilizations or the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Con-flict have been largely ignored.

But today’s world presents us with un-precedented opportunities to harness the media for greater peacebuilding, thanks to the historic confluence of three major trends:

It is a time of disruptive change in media, •with foreign news bureaus closing, news-papers folding and journalists migrating to other fields. Most importantly, media content is no longer controlled by anyone, including networks and editors. For the first time in human history, individuals and organizations alike are all capable of making media and sending it around the world with the push of a button.

PeaceWatch (ISSN 1080-9864) is published three times a year by the United States Institute of Peace, an independent, nonpartisan national institution established and funded by Congress to help prevent, manage and resolve international conflicts. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect views of the Institute or its Board of Directors. To receive PeaceWatch, visit our Web site (www.usip.org); write to the United States Institute of Peace, 1200 17th Street NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036-3011; call 202-457-1700; or fax 202-429-6063. A complete archive of PeaceWatch is available at www.usip.org/peacewatch.

President: Richard H. SolomonExecutive Vice President: Tara SonenshineCFO: Michael Graham Director of Public Affairs: Lauren SucherDirector of Publications: Valerie NorvilleSenior Writer/Editor: Liz HarperEditor/Proofreader: Grace WenAssistant to the Executive Vice President: Sarah WidesProduction Manager: Marie Marr JacksonGraphic Designer: Richard von ZimmerProduction Coordinator: Christian FeuersteinPhoto Credits: Bill Fitz-Patrick, AP Photo, and Staff

Board of DirectorsChairman: J. Robinson West Vice Chairman: George E. Moose Members: Anne H. Cahn, Chester A. Crocker, Kerry Kennedy, Ikram U. Khan, Stephen D. Krasner, Jeremy A. Rabkin, Judy Van Rest, Nancy Zirkin

Members ex officio: Michael H. Posner, Department of StateJames N. Miller, Department of DefenseAnn E. Rondeau, National Defense UniversityRichard Solomon, Institute President (nonvoting)

PeaceWatch

Fast Fact: Global Internet penetration is about 28.7%.

Sheldon Himelfarb welcomes those attending USIP’s summit on media and peacebuilding, “Media as Global Diplomat: Seizing the Moment,” in May 2010.



version of a media assessment template for funders and implementers to consider, improve and adopt. Designed to combine careful conflict analysis with media assess-ment, the Intended-Outcomes Needs As-sessment (IONA) will ultimately improve the ability to understand why some media interventions are more successful than oth-ers. This tool was used for the first time to produce an assessment of Afghanistan’s media (see page 5 for more).

Impact evaluation We have joined with a consortium of me-dia organizations—Internews, Annenberg School for Communication, Broadcasting Board of Governors and Fondation Hiron-delle—to develop a set of guiding principles on measuring the impact of media inter-ventions in conflict.

Improved understanding of social media With 200 million plus blogs, more than 120 million YouTube videos and over 500 mil-lion Facebook users worldwide, we know that online social networking is a form of human interaction with enormous impact. Thus we launched the Blogs and Bullets ini-tiative, bringing scholars from The George Washington University, Harvard Univer-sity and Stanford University together with experts from Silicon Valley to devise new ways of unlocking the relationship between online discourse and conflict (see page 10 for a story on Blogs and Bullets).

munity focused on media as a core conflict management tool. Partly out of necessity, and partly because technology reduced the cost of production and distribution (think camcorders and cassette tapes), the role of media in conflict has since exploded.

With each new conflict came more in-novation for peace, funded by governments and foundations, designed and managed by entrepreneurs acting in and out of gov-ernment. Radio stations such as Studio Ijambo and Radio Agatasha were created in the Great Lakes region of Africa to pro-vide Hutus, Tutsis and others with reliable news and information. In the Balkans, new networks such as OBN and Radio Fern offered test beds for productions seeking reconciliation among Serbs, Croats and Muslims. Children in Macedonia, Israel and the Palestinian Territories watched TV shows designed expressly to counter the hateful stereotypes. In Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, postconflict reconstruc-tion included unprecedented laws and en-forcement mechanisms against hate media along with journalistic safeguards. The list also includes pioneering media work for peacebuilding in Colombia, Indonesia and many other places.

The pace of innovation in TV, radio and print applications of media to peace-building has accelerated with Internet technology, social networking and mobile telephony. For example, only a few months ago we witnessed the unprecedented use of data crowdsourced from mobile phones

to guide relief workers in Haiti. Using a mapping platform called Ushahidi (which originated in Kenya in response to electoral violence), volunteers from Boston-based universities, working with Haitian diaspora in the U.S., fielded texts and tweets for help to create maps that guided the military, the International Red Cross and other aid agen-cies. Then, as the medical crisis subsided, the platform was used to monitor poten-tial gang violence, of which Haiti has had a painful history, with financial support from USIP. (Learn more about crowdsourc-ing and Ushahidi in Haiti http://www.usip.org/publications/crowdsourcing-crisis-in-formation-in-disaster-affected-haiti.)

Substantial funding has been injected into various conflict zones to support me-dia interventions, although they have not always been as effective as Ushahidi in Haiti. Often, interventions are designed quickly under the pressures and conditions of violent conflict. Media scholar Robert Manoff ’s observation at a 1997 USIP con-ference holds true today: Peacebuilding media interventions are characterized by the absence of a deliberate and systematic assessment methodology to determine why the intervention is needed, the pur-pose of the intervention and what must be achieved. Consequently, many of the basic building blocks needed for effective analy-sis of lessons learned and best practices re-main lacking.

USIP Initiatives

USIP is working closely with leaders in the field to tackle problems like this and pro-vide the tools necessary to advance one of the most promising and dynamic areas of conflict management today. Here are just a few of the key initiatives underway, com-plementing the Institute’s conflict-specific work in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Systematic assessment Working with a team of expert media consultants, USIP recently released a beta

In2011,USIPwillhostU4Ushahidi,apilotprogramfortechnologically

talentedyouthfromconflict-pronecountries.

continued page 18 >>

In the wake of the January 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti, people wait in line to fill containers with water at a refugee camp in Port-au-Prince. (Credit: AP Photos)

Red Cross workers provide assistance in Haiti following the earthquake. (Credit: American Red Cross/Talia Frenkel)



4 PeaceWatch

conflict-Sensitive Reporting in Iraq

Beirut was a fitting location for a workshop in November 2010 on “Preventing Media Incitement to Violence in Iraq.” Lebanon and Iraq have heavily politicized media sec-tors that have struggled to contain inflam-matory news coverage, which can spark violence, ethnic and religious hatred, and civil disorder. Against this backdrop, the Institute’s Center of Innovation for Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding, in partnership with the Annenberg School for Communi-cation and UNESCO, brought together a unique group of professionals from three Iraqi media sectors: news directors from the top five Iraqi satellite channels, media regulators and civil society media moni-tors. During six days of intense sessions, attendees examined how the most-watched Iraqi channels covered the contentious na-tional elections in March 2010.

Participants developed ways to improve reporting at key channels while assisting regulators and civil society watchdogs in strengthening how they monitor Iraqi me-dia outlets.

Maureen Taylor of the University of Oklahoma opened the workshop by pre-senting the initial findings from USIP-commissioned research that analyzed the use of inflammatory speech on news pro-grams at the Iraqi TV channels represented at the workshop. In Iraq, phrases such as “sectarian quotas,” “foreign agendas” and “national resistance” can be considered in-flammatory, depending on the context.

Participants saw exactly which terms were used, their frequency of usage and which segment of the newscast the terms appeared. For some news directors, the content analysis results were eye opening, as data showed clear cases of inflammatory coverage on certain channels.

The purpose of the workshop was not to point fingers, but to introduce tools that participants could apply at their news or-ganizations to encourage more conflict-sensitive reporting.

This effort appealed to participants. One news director, who worked for a chan-nel that broadcasted a high amount of in-

flammatory terms in its news reporting, recognized that reducing such content was ultimately a good business decision. He of-fered not only to fund relevant training for his staff, but even for journalists from other Iraqi channels.

Another expert was Joe Khalil, a North-western University instructor based in Doha, Qatar, and a Middle East television professional with 15 years of experience. After presenting the uses and key elements of a style guide, Khalil worked with par-ticipants to design a customized guide for reporting on conflict in Iraq. This guide features a list of inflammatory terms, their contextualized uses and possible conflict-sensitive alternatives. Although most Iraqi participants agreed that certain terms could incite violence, they debated how

By Theo Dolan

A group participating in a November 2010 workshop on “Preventing Media Incitement to Violence in Iraq.”

“Salam Shabab” (Peace Youth) is a unique reality TV show about Iraqi youth from across the country as they compete in challenges designed to support a new and growing community of young Iraqi peace-builders. The nine-episode series, sup-ported by USIP, will air in early 2011 on a network of Iraqi satellite channels, timed with the relaunch of the program’s social networking Web site, http://salamshabab.com. Watch the “Salam Shabab” pilot documentary and learn more about USIP’s Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding work in Iraq.http://www.usip.org/programs/initiatives/media-conflict-peacebuilding-in-iraq

Iraqi Youth Star in Reality Show to Build Peace





Fast Fact: 17 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2012.

Peacebuilding Goes Mobile in afghanistan

The application of technology to peace-building in Afghanistan is the subject of two recent USIP publications authored by Sheldon Himelfarb that identify the vast possibilities, as well as the limitations, pre-sented by the growing media presence in the unstable country.

“Can You Help Me Now? Mobile Phones and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan” sum-marizes and expands upon the findings of a conference of the same name held in June 2010. The event marked the second of USIP’s Smart Tools for Smart Power series, and was developed with the goal of bring-ing together journalists, policymakers, Afghanistan specialists and telecommu-nications experts to navigate the potential benefits of increasing efforts to use mobile phones as a method of peacebuilding in Afghanistan. Although poverty, high illit-eracy rates, corruption, an untrained work-force and a lack of security are all identified in the report as hurdles to the expansion of mobile technology, Himelfarb is optimis-tic about the mobile networks’ capacity to support peacebuilding efforts in the region. Most notable is the rise of mobile money transfer (MMT) applications, which have proven to be excellent corruption-deter-rents and a boon to economic development. MMTs enable users to do their banking, including withdrawals, transfers and loan

obtainment, from mobile-based accounts. Employers have also experimented to great success with MMT-based salary payment, and experts are hopeful that the funds can be raised for a nation-wide rollout of the project in the near future. Land dispute res-olution, citizen reporting, and gender em-powerment are other areas that Himelfarb predicts could be heavily affected by the rapid growth of mobile communication.

The second report—“Afghanistan Media Assessment: Opportunities and Challenges for Peacebuilding,” co-authored with Eran Fraenkel and Emrys Schoemaker—focuses on how the media (primarily television and radio) can best be utilized as a peacemak-ing tool in Afghanistan. The assessment notes that following the overthrow of the Taliban, international investors poured money into developing Afghan media, which had been heavily regulated or even banned during the regime’s rule. The ambi-tion was to create an “independent” media, one that would promote social, political and economic change, but due to many of the same challenges detailed in “Can You Help Me Now?” that change failed to mate-rialize. The authors spoke with more than 100 Afghans in an attempt to determine their personal sources of frustration, and interviewees cited a mistrust of sources as well as unwanted foreign, religious and Tal-iban influence among their chief problems with the current state of Afghan media. To address these frustrations, the authors offer an overarching recommendation to shift investors’ focus from an open-ended and vague intention to create a free media and toward a content-driven approach (in-cluding serialized dramas, television docu-mentaries and investigative/participatory talk shows) that will address specific social change objectives proposed by the Afghans themselves. This report represents the first use of the Intended-Outcomes Needs As-sessment, as described on page 3.


“Can You Help Me Now?” by Sheldon Himelfarb, November 2010.

www.usip.org/publications/can_you_help_me_now

“Afghanistan Media Assessment: Opportu-nities and Challanges for Peacebuilding” by Eran Fraenkel, Emrys Schoemaker and Sheldon Himelfarb, December 2010.

www.usip.org/publications/afghanistan-media-assessment


6 PeaceWatch

Fast Fact: English, Portuguese, Japanese and Spanish are the most-used languages on Twitter.

Beyond the Beltway Peacebuilding

As part of its mission to educate and inform the public at large, the Institute actively uses online technologies to extend its reach beyond the Washington, D.C.-Beltway. Through webcasts and various social me-dia, audiences all over the world can par-ticipate in events and activities with USIP.

Whether you are a peacebuilder in Su-dan or a student in Indonesia, you can

watch and participate in real-time dis-cussions and events in Washington, D.C. While watching live streaming video from an event, audiences use a chatbox feature to simultaneously discuss the issues and top-ics raised during that event with other par-ticipants. Audiences can also participate by posting questions to panelists during the event.

Anybody anywhere in the world can receive live updates about the Institute by following USIP on Twitter. Followers on Twitter can learn about the latest publica-tions and events, read quotes from discus-sions and ask questions during live tweet sessions from high-profile events. USIP’s tweets were seen and shared with more than 50,000 Twitter users during a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in May 2010.

On Facebook, USIP hosts live Q-and-A sessions with experts. Facebook fans can also get the latest information on the new head-quarters building, check out pictures, read about new books and publications, partici-pate in contests and share their feedback.

How You Can Get Involved

Follow us on Twitter: • http://twitter.com/usip“Like” us on Facebook and participate in •a discussion with one of our experts on Facebook: www.facebook.com/usinsti-tuteofpeaceWatch a live webcast and ask us ques- •tions or post your comments in real-time: www.usip.org/newsroom/webcastsWatch video or listen to audio in our •multimedia section: www.usip.org/news-room/multimediaWatch our videos on YouTube: • www.you-tube.com/user/usinstituteofpeaceSignup to receive e-mail notifications •from USIP: http://www.usip.org/news-room/newsletters

By Dida Atassi




USIP Extranets: Building Global communities

To expand USIP’s convening powers beyond geographic and temporal boundaries, the Institute developed a new Web-based proj-ect collaboration platform, known as an ex-tranet system. The extranet system enables real-time access to resources and conver-sations for peacebuilders everywhere, and enhances USIP’s work by building and fa-cilitating communities of practice.

The extranet platform is a setup of pub-licly accessible Web sites designed for com-munity interaction around specific topics. They foster open discussions, provide topic-based news and resources for use in peacebuilding efforts on the ground and in the classroom. The system can also easily create working group sites for smaller, fo-cused groups of users that need a collabora-tive workspace for managing tasks, sharing resources and news and collaborating di-rectly on various documents.

USIP’s technology team developed the extranet project to provide staff with an easy way to leverage Web-based tools and applications to promote their projects and work program goals. In doing so, the tech team developed tools that can be repurposed across any current or future extranet site.

With the extranet platform, the Insti-tute’s technical officers can construct in-teractive public project sites for programs in less than 20 minutes—with a consistent USIP look and design.

USIP’s first extranet site, the Interna-tional Network for Economics and Con-flict (http://inec.usip.org), was designed for USIP’s Center of Innovation on Sustainable Economies, led by Raymond Gilpin. The goal of the site is to be “a comprehensive one-stop tool for practitioners of economic development working in fragile states.” People can register on the site and par-ticipate in discussions, comment and ask questions of selected experts in the blog section, find up-to-the minute news on de-velopment and economic issues as well as add to the wiki resource of related links and glossary of terms.

Upon its launch, Gilpin said, “By pro-viding an interactive archive, regular blogs and networking opportunities, INEC aims to close this gap, and help practitioners and policymakers develop and utilize the most effective and sustainable tools.”

In addition to the INEC site, USIP re-cently launched an online version of the book, “The Iran Primer (http://iranprimer.usip.org).” The site has HTML and PDF

versions of all the chapters, and features a section called Author Talk, where the au-thors weigh in on real-time news and events relevant to Iran.

USIP’s extranet platform is just one ex-ample of how the Institute is developing and leveraging online communications, tools and applications to enhance peace-building efforts worldwide.

For more see “Virtual Games for Real World Peace” on p. 8.


By Tony Kopetchny


8 PeaceWatch

Virtual Games for Real World Peace

The field of “war-fighting” games is well advanced, but the field of “peace” games is just beginning. The USIP Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding has been using various com-puter-based simulations to train and edu-cate peacebuilders around the world.

For example, the Academy uses the Stra-tegic Economic Needs and Security Exercise (SENSE), a computer-facilitated simulation that focuses heavily on human interaction, negotiations and decision-making in a post-conflict environment.

Developed by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), SENSE provides a dynamic but safe environment for experiencing first-hand the interconnected nature of working in a postconflict environment. Its sophisti-cated computer support provides partici-pants with rapid feedback on the results of their time-sensitive decision-making in terms of political stability, social justice, and a foundation for economic progress.

In partnership with the Office of the Sec-retary of Defense (OSD), USIP has conducted simulations for interagency audiences in the D.C. area and trained more than 300 people since 2009. Through this partnership with OSD, a new iteration of the simulation is under development to make SENSE more applicable to Afghanistan.

SENSE has been extraordinarily success-ful in Iraq, where it has been used with some 1,500 leaders in government and civil soci-ety. As a result of a USIP train-the-trainers effort, SENSE has been administered by Iraqis for Iraqis since 2005.

In Poland, in cooperation with IDA, USIP partnered with the Polish Ministry of National Defense and the University of War-saw’s Center for Eastern European Stud-ies Program to set up a permanent SENSE program in 2006. With the support of the Polish foreign ministry, the SENSE program continues today.

To leverage new technologies and make simulations more accessible to all educators and trainers, USIP created the Open Simula-tion Platform (OSP), fruits of a multidepart-ment effort at the Institute.

As the name suggests, OSP is an open-source project, meaning that it uses freely shared software contributed by open source programmers from around the globe. The publicly available software itself is kept on Google’s Open Source repository.

Ronald “Skip” Cole, a senior program of-ficer at the USIP Academy leading the OSP work, explained “OSP grew out of the desire to make the traditional and noncomputer-ized simulation more specific and capable of being individualized.”

Cole believes that the more people who use it can modify and improve it, while cre-ating their own unique simulations or refin-ing existing simulations.

The Institute’s OSP has been used to de-liver the powerful capstone exercise in the USIP Academy course Leading Adaptive Teams in Conflict Environment since May 2009. Students are placed in a virtual field office in Afghanistan where they feel ten-sions between their headquarters and local demands.

Online education simulations using the OSP are also being developed by a range of institutions, including The Bishop’s School, the Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution, Creighton University’s School of Law and Prison Fellowship Inter-national.

SENSE and OSP together allow more and more people to use and learn from “peace games,” and benefit from USIP’s education and training materials.

a New Media challenge for High School StudentsThe USIP Academy also leverages media tools to cut down on paper waste and reach younger generations. In December 2010, the annual National Peace Essay Contest, in which thousands of high school stu-dents participate from across the country, launched a new online system to facilitate participation. Coordinators (teachers, par-ents and other sponsors) can now help stu-dents enter the contest without using paper and going to the post office. After coordi-nators register online, a unique Web ad-dress for the student registration page will be e-mailed to them. Students can register and submit essays all online!

Fittingly, the topic of its 2011–2012 Na-tional Peace Essay Contest—which kicks off in spring 2011—challenges high school students to write about the impact of new media on peacebuilding and conflict man-agement. Stay tuned for more details this spring and visit us here www.usip.org/npec!

By Liz Harper


SENSEhasbeenextraordinarilysuccessfulinIraq,whereithasbeenused

withsome1,500leadersingovernmentandcivilsociety.



Fast Fact: There are more than 500 million Facebook users, about 70% of them are outside the United States.

PeaceMedia: find, Engage, Share online

It’s long been known that media have power to shape reality, but now the Internet has made it virtually anybody’s game.

Nearly 2 billion Web users worldwide have uploaded 120 million videos on You-Tube and more than 5 billion pictures on Flickr, but even just one simple photo, video clip or message has the potential to impact an audience and change minds like never before (see page 10 for How Will the Revolu-tion be Blogged and Tweeted?).

Unfortunately, many in the world choose to use the Internet to promote hate. Accord-ing to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, online hate media has surged by 20 percent in the last year, as some 11,500 “hateful” or “terror-ist” sites, networks and forums spread their

poison. In the face of such damaging con-tent, media consumers and providers need resources to counter this nefarious online presence, and to promote peace over conflict and understanding over fear.

PeaceMedia (http://peacemedia.usip.org) is a new resource designed to help peace-builders, practitioners and educators world-wide meet this important challenge.

Developed by USIP, in collaboration with Georgetown University’s Conflict Resolu-tion Program, the site is designed to trans-form conflict through mass media. It is a central location for peace media of various platforms that puts relevant content at users’ fingertips. With thousands of pieces of peace media—searchable by country, topic and media type—the collection is a powerful tool to enhance research and understand-ing of conflicts and conflict management around the world.

The Web site enables visitors to use its da-tabase to find, engage and share peace media regardless of where and how it was originally posted. In addition to the vast media collec-tion, PeaceMedia also publishes the latest jobs, fellowships, competitions, and grants within the industry for those seeking fund-ing opportunities. The result is a one-stop “shop” that not only improves as it grows and develops with user contributions, but adds value and contributes traffic to col-laborating sites as well.

The creation of PeaceMedia is only the beginning. In the five minutes it has taken to read this article, five days worth of video have been posted on YouTube and 28,000 pictures uploaded on Flickr. What is known about violent conflicts changes as fast as the media used to portray and resolve them.

If you are interested in learning more, please visit the site at http://peacemedia.usip.org, e-mail [email protected] or follow us on Twitter: peacemediac.

By Christopher Neu and Tyler Peterson


Withthousandsofpiecesofpeacemedia—searchablebycountry,topicand

mediatype—thecollectionisapowerfultooltoenhanceresearchandun-

derstandingofconflictsandconflictmanagementaroundtheworld..


10 PeaceWatch

how will thee

be blogged and tweeted

In June 2009, as the Iranian regime cracked down on protests against what appeared to be flawed elections, a young woman tragically and unknow-ingly became an icon of Iran’s opposi-tion movement. Neda Agha Soltan, a 26-year-old student, was shot while at-tending a rally on the streets of Tehran, and died shortly after. But she quickly became a virtual symbol of the protest movement through the power of the Internet and viral video. Soltan was not the only victim of the regime’s swift and violent retribution. Official accounts put the death toll of the protests at 36, with others claiming twice that number. Many more were injured and arrested. The violence was not unique, as count-less activists have died in obscurity at the hands of repressive regimes throughout history.

But Soltan’s death was thrust into the spotlight since it occurred at a time of fundamental shift in the way news, im-ages and information are communicated. It was not a professional journalist or in-ternational news agency that captured her story. Instead, it was grainy amateur cell

By Anand Varghese

R volutionwill

results, hate groups and extremists using the Internet

to recruit new followers and the Iranian revolutionary guards posting pictures of opposition members online so that pro-government citizens can identify them. Is the victory of a technically-savvy David over the Goliath of violence and despotism just too good to be true?

Indeed, the viral nature of the news of Soltan’s death, the wired nature of Iran’s Green Movement in general and other cases previously mentioned have raised serious questions among analysts and policymakers about the power of the In-ternet. Is the Internet a force for good, and if so, how can it be harnessed as such? These questions have created two distinct camps: (1) cyber utopians, who view the Internet as bringing fundamentally positive change to conflicts and politics around the world and (2) cyber skeptics who believe the Internet will tip the bal-ance in favor of repressive states, politi-cal polarization and social insularity.

But must it be one or the other? Through its “Blogs and Bullets” ini-

phone video footage that was e-mailed around the world and uploaded onto YouTube that sparked outrage. Viewed by millions online, and picked up by international news stations, her image prompted condemnation of Iranian authorities from the international com-munity and bolstered Iran’s opposition movement, which was also using social networking tools like Twitter to orga-nize protests.

Cyber Skeptics and Cyber Utopians

Iran’s Green Movement has become the canonical case study on the roles of Web 2.0 and social media tools in so-cial movements and violent conflicts. When we consider the cases of Mol-dova’s Twitter Uprising and Colombia’s Facebook protests against the FARC, a pattern emerges—one that seems to suggest that the brave new world of the Web belongs to the activists. But fur-ther digging exposes more troubling signs: the Belarusian government mon-itoring blogging platforms to track op-ponents, the Chinese censoring search



be blogged and tweetedbut its role in mobilizing collective ac-tion on the ground is harder to assess. Analyzing such cases on these five levels enhances our understanding beyond the cyber skeptic-cyber utopian dichotomy and suggests more complex questions and hypotheses for future research. It marks an important step forward in refining our ideas about the role of the Internet in conflict.

New Tools for New Media Research

New media demand new tools to ana-lyze and draw conclusions from their study. The Internet has produced vast amounts of data on how individuals communicate and what content they consume.

Since January 2009, USIP has actively promoted the development of quantita-tive and analytical tools that map on-line discourse in the Persian, Arabic and Russian-language blogospheres. Developed by the Berkman Center and Morningside Analytics, maps of various blogospheres provide new insights into these virtual societies: how reformist and conservative bloggers contend with each

R volutiontiative, USIP has thrown itself into the thick of these debates, attempting to bring rigor to the way we study these emerging phenomena, and nuance and data to the way we understand them.

Framing the Debate

In these early days of this research, one of the main challenges is moving past the “dueling anecdotes” that fuel cur-rent debates between various experts. For this reason, USIP’s research has focused on creating a broader, fact-based picture of how new media affects politics and conflict. To this end, USIP commissioned research from experts at The George Washington University, Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Morningside Analytics. The resulting report, “Blogs and Bullets: New Media in Contentious Politics,” lays out five levels at which new media create social and political change: individual transformation, intergroup relations, collective action, regime policies and external attention.

In Iran, the Internet drew consid-erable international media attention

to the protests,

other on local political issues in Iran, how bridge bloggers between the Arabic and English-speaking worlds are creating new channels of cross-cultural under-standing and how Russian bloggers are challenging systemic corruption and the political status quo.

The Institute also supports new tools like Meme Tracker that trace the move-ment of ideas between online media and traditional news sources. In a me-dia landscape constantly transformed by Web-based tools and informed by Web-generated content, it is impor-tant to understand how Soltan’s video went viral, and how the deadly Iranian protest went from a local issue to one of popular international significance in its own right.

All of these efforts help piece to-gether a complex, ever-changing puzzle. The debates between cyber skeptics and cyber utopians are not merely relevant for those in the Ivory Tower. These are important issues for conflict manage-ment in a digital age.


12 PeaceWatch

Grants at Work around the World

Nigeria: Communities Demand Accountable Governance

In the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, cor-ruption drives conflict and violence. Devel-opment funds, which are intended to ensure communities benefit from oil revenue, often do not result in tangible improve-ments in the quality of life for community members, thereby fueling grievances. In an effort to hold government officials account-able for the management of these develop-ment funds, a USIP grant is supporting an innovative “Citizen Report Card” in the Niger Delta. Niger Delta Professionals for Development (NIDPRODEV) is working in 10 oil-producing communities to collect and publicize data on basic public service, governance and infrastructure issues. The first report card, for instance, found that none of the five communities in Bayelsa State have been visited by local, state or federal government officials in the previ-ous year. In the infrastructure section, one

community reported about a school proj-ect: “Project was completed. Then it sud-denly collapsed. Nothing has been done about it since.”

NIDPRODEV distributes information about the report card to traditional media and to hundreds of stakeholders using bulk SMS (short message system or commonly known as text message) technology.

NIDPRODEV argues that, “SMS tech-nology and the Internet work to circumvent the bureaucratic and special interest bottle-necks that prevent valuable information from getting into and out of isolated river-ine communities.” To measure the impact of the project more carefully, NIDPRODEV will be conducting a control group evalua-tion of the project comparing the 10 com-munities where they worked with baseline assessment in communities where they did not work. To view a Citizen Report Card, go to http://nidprodev.org/files/Citizen_Report_Card_March_2010.pdf.

Rwanda: Computer Games for Peace

Rwanda is undergoing rapid technological growth, including installing thousands of computers in schools across the country, while at the same time remaining deeply divided along ethnic and social grounds. This situation provides an opportunity to use new technology to manage persistent conflicts. Toward this end, USIP’s Grants Program is supporting Search for Common Ground and Serious Games Interactive to develop age appropriate, open-source com-puter games to be used within schools as part of Rwandan Ministry of Education’s peace and conflict syllabus. During the pi-lot phase, the game will be introduced to 3,000 students in 15 schools, with hopes to eventually distribute it to more than 100,000 students throughout Rwanda. Moreover, since the computer games are open source and freely available, the proj-ect has the potential to reach far beyond Rwanda.

Colombia: Innovative Technology for Human Rights Documentation

EQUITAS is a Colombian nongovernmen-tal organization focused on developing scientific approaches to investigating and documenting human rights abuses. With the support of USIP, EQUITAS recently produced the report, “Methodological Pro-posals for Documenting and Searching for Missing Persons.” Based on extensive field-work in Antioquia and Casanare, this pub-lication details four innovative methods of locating and identifying the disappeared: computer simulation of water flows to track bodies that have been placed in rivers, anal-ysis of cemetery administrative records, archaeological assessment of construction debris dumps and remote sensing analysis to detect clandestine cemeteries. Through its work, EQUITAS helps Colombians ad-dress one of the most painful legacies of


Above: A Community Monitoring Group member from Tsekelewu, Nigeria. Tsekelewu is a riverine community that was approved to receive 26 million naira ($174,000) for solar-powered street lights, yet remains almost completely in the dark. Page 13: Eighty rural and riverine women from 20 communities and three ethnic groups increase their leader-ship capacity and inter-communal networking skills while attending a five-day conference.



communication for Peacebuilding

“At its heart, development—if it is to be sustainable—must be a process that allows people to be their own agents of change… Enabling greater numbers of people to speak, engage and respond to one another is ultimately equipping them to take political responsibility, which is a key ingredient to establishing deep and sustainable change.” So argues a recent report by Panos-UK. What is true for development and the fight against poverty is doubly true for peace-building, a field in which communication and relationships are critically important.

With this in mind, the USIP Grants Pro-gram is launching the Communication for Peacebuilding (CfP) Priority Grant Initiative in 2011. As the quotation above indicates, the project is inspired by the communica-tion for development field. While the field has existed for 50 years, it has been reinvigo-rated of late by the possibilities opened up by new technology.

Initially, the project will focus on two strands of work. The first—focused on con-flict monitoring and community security—will support initiatives designed to improve the ability of communities to take a more active role in monitoring conflict and re-sponding to threats posed by the outbreak of violence. As is often noted, community members themselves are the first respond-ers to conflict and violence. If we accept

this premise, the question becomes, how can communication f lows be improved both to and from these community-level responders?

The second strand of work—participa-tory peacebuilding—will support initia-tives designed to improve feedback loops between communities, local peacebuilders and international actors. There are three big questions that peacebuilders at any level need to answer: What should be done? What is being done? What are the results of what is being done? The central challenge of the CfP is to understand how the information to answer these questions can be gathered from communities more easily, more accu-rately and more continuously.

Across both strands of work, the goal of the initiative is to build a knowledge base of effective practices in the peacebuilding field and to support the integration of these prac-tices into the programming of peacebuild-ing organizations. To accomplish this, the core focus of the project will be learning, sharing of knowledge and collaboration on key challenges in the field.

The Communication for Peacebuilding initiative will release its first solicitation for proposals in early 2011. The solicitation will be available on the USIP Web site at http://www.usip.org/grants-fellowships/priority-grant-competition#CFP.

By Andrew Blum


conflict, the identification of victims. Its unique methods contribute to peacebuild-ing by providing support to victims’ fami-lies and by providing technical guidance to Colombian government agencies.

Pakistan: Madrassah Media Training Centers

Islamic religious schools, or madrassahs, have always been an integral part of life in central and southern Asia. In the 1980s, during the Soviet occupation of Afghani-stan, the number of Islamic madrassahs in-creased exponentially. As a result, there are more graduates from Islamic madrassahs than the community requires. These grad-uates are often exploited by extremists, and recruited to engage in armed conflicts with governments in Pakistan and Afghanistan. There is a dire need to provide madrassah graduates with alternative career oppor-tunities. Toward this end, USIP awarded a grant to Pak-Afghan Cross-Border Train-ing Radio to offer media training to 80 madrassah students by setting up media centers in eight well-respected madrassahs in the North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan. Short courses on radio report-ing, plus a long-term course on “Journalism from an Islamic Perspective” are offered. The radio programs produced have a par-ticular focus on peacebuilding and identi-fication of solutions to the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The overall objective of the project is to establish pro-ductive linkages between classical Islamic scholarship and modern journalism.

14 PeaceWatch


Engaging the World

Focus on Iran

Since Iran’s 1979 revolution, the West has struggled to understand what drives the Islamic Republic and how to deal with it. The challenge looms even larger in the face of Iran’s controversial nuclear program, the disputed 2009 election, human rights vio-lations and angry rhetoric. After 30 years of estrangement between the United States and Iran, the Obama administration has escalated sanctions and joined multilat-eral talks with Iran aimed at ensuring its nuclear energy program is not subverted to make nuclear weapons.

During this volatile time, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) collaborated with various organizations to produce two new reports on Iran aimed at making sense of events in Iran and the choices policymak-ers face. In December, USIP released “The Iran Primer: Power, Politics, and U.S. Pol-icy,” edited by Robin Wright, a joint fellow at USIP and the Woodrow Wilson Interna-tional Center for Scholars. “Engagement, Coercion, and Iran’s Nuclear Challenge,” the product of a year-long collaboration between the Institute’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention and the Stimson Center, was released in November.

The Iran Primer

“The Iran Primer” offers comprehen-sive but concise overviews of Iran’s politics, economy, military, foreign policy and nuclear program from 50 experts on Iran that hail from 20 think

tanks, eight universities and six U.S. ad-ministrations. The authors offer both fac-tual information for ready reference and thoughtful analysis and context.

“This project’s goal was to be widely inclusive of the broad range of talent from many think tanks and universities around the world,” Wright said. “The volume has no political agenda and no single political perspective. It also includes as many Ira-nian voices as Western authors.”

The timing of the volume was deliber-ate. “For Americans, Iran is one of the most stereotyped and least understood coun-tries in the world,” Wright added. “Iran has always been an important geostrate-gic country, but today it represents a more complex challenge than other hotspots—Afghanistan, Iraq and North Korea—for several reasons. The Islamic Republic will

be pivotal to global events in the early 21st century because of its resources, ideology, weaponry, allies and location.”

On December 1, 2010, USIP convened a panel with Ambassador Dennis Ross, spe-cial assistant to the president, and 10 of the book’s contributors to explore important trends inside Iran and its dealings with the outside world.

“Iran has an opportunity, and I hope it will take that opportunity,” Ross said in his keynote speech. Ross noted that inter-national sanctions have increased the pres-sure for Iran to negotiate with the world’s six major powers. He warned that “if Iran stays on the path it is on, then it should be ready to pay a price.”

Wright noted that “talks are coming at a time of unprecedented internal divisions.” Tensions are visible within the hardline re-gime, among the original revolutionaries, in parliament, even inside the Revolution-ary Guards, as well as from the new Green Movement opposition. Pressures are likely to mount further because Iran’s population is overwhelmingly young and pessimistic about their own futures.

Since the book’s launch event, Iran ex-perts have continued their dialogue in an online forum, at www.iranprimer.com, where the entire book is available for down-load. The site will be continuously updated to provide current information about the

Robin Wright



many complex sides of a country with which the United States has not had relations for more than three decades. Each link on the site connects to a complete chapter on one of 62 subjects in 10 categories. New analysis is added weekly in the “Author Talk” sec-tion, based on recent developments in Iran.

The Nuclear Challenge

In the second major USIP work on Iran this fall, co-authors Barry Blechman of the Stimson Center and Daniel Brumberg of USIP, joined by contributing author Steven Heydemann of USIP, produced “Engage-

ment, Coercion, and Iran’s Nuclear Chal-lenge.” The study prescribes a recalibrated U. S. approach to Iran, leveraging the gains achieved from sanctions by indicating a willingness to engage Iran diplomatically on a wide range of issues. The report offers insights into how to persuade Iran that its long-term interests would be best served by resolving issues related to its nuclear activities. It includes specific recommen-dations for U.S. and Western strategies for engagement:

Make adjustments of comparable impor- •tance to the demands made of the Islamic Republic, including recognition of Iran’s right to enrich uranium for peaceful pur-poses under international safeguards.Avoid threatening the use of force. Such •threats reinforce those in Tehran who believe Iran requires nuclear weapons for its security and undermines those who argue for compromise with the in-ternational community. To this end, the United States should also discourage pos-sible Israeli air strikes.Take advantage of the leverage gained •from sanctions to reinvigorate, broaden and engage Iran diplomatically. This renewed effort at strategic engagement might shift the balance in Tehran, per-suading more pragmatic members of the ruling elite that it is in Iran’s own interest to end its estrangement from the inter-national community by reaching a com-promise on nuclear and other security issues.

Of Related Interest

“The Iran Primer” and “Engagement, Coer-cion, and Iran’s Nuclear Challenge” are the most recent in an extensive collection of re-sources on Iran from the United States In-stitute of Peace. In “Negotiating with Iran,” author John Limbert writes from a personal and professional perspective, combining a deep appreciation and knowledge of Ira-nian culture and history, first-hand diplo-matic experience and an understanding of what it means to negotiate for the lives of

Americans. Limbert outlines 14 principles to guide the American who finds himself in a negotiation—commercial, political or other—with an Iranian counterpart.

The third book in the series from the Institute’s Muslim World Initiative on pivotal states in the Muslim world, “Iran’s Long Reach” by Suzanne Maloney, sheds light on Iran’s strikingly complex political system and foreign policy and its central role in the region. Maloney systematically outlines Iran’s sources of influence in the Muslim world, including its strategic ambi-tions and dynamism, political innovations, economic clout, religiocultural institutions and historical and cultural linkages. Malo-ney argues that although its leadership and rhetoric often appear stagnant, Iran is in reality one of the least static societies in the Muslim world.


Amb. Dennis Ross, Special Assistant to President Obama, provides context for the situation in Iran as he introduces a panel composed of contributors to “The Iran Primer.”

Engagement, Coercion, and Iran’s Nuclear Challenge

Report of a Joint Study Group on U.S.-Iran Policy

2010 • Available online atwww.usip.org/publications/iranchallenge

The Iran Primer Power, Politics, and U.S. Policy

Robin Wright, editor2010 • 280 pp. • 8.5 x 11

$19.95 (paper) 978-1-60127-084-9

16 PeaceWatch


convening Power

Conference Examines Link between Security and Gender

A major conference in Washington, D.C., “Women and War,” explored the connec-tion between women, peace and conflict, and how to make sustained progress to-ward greater global peace and security. The three-day event, held from November 3-5, featured an extraordinary coalition of national and international participants, including U.N. and U.S. government of-ficials, including Adm. Michael Mullen, officials from the international diplomatic communities, military personnel, academ-ics, civil society leaders and practitioners in the fields of security, development and conflict resolution. Visit the “Women and War” page to watch videos, read summa-ries and more from the conference. http://www.usip.org/events/women-and-war

Can Hip Hop Music Bring Peace?

Arab hip hop artists “the Narcicyst,” “Mana,” and “Omar Offendum” visited the Institute on October 27. They performed their latest works and discussed with USIP’s Theo Dolan and Manal Omar, director of USIP’s Iraq Programs, how music and the

media can serve as platforms to speak out for peace and against injustice.

First Vice President Salva Kiir on the Road Ahead in Sudan

His Excellency General Salva Kiir Ma-yardit, first vice president of Sudan and resident of the Government of Southern Sudan, spoke at USIP on September 20 about the country’s referendums in early 2011. USIP President Richard H. Solomon introduced Kiir, and the Institute’s Sudan expert Jon Temin moderated the Q-and-A session.

Blogs and Bullets: Mapping the Russian Blogosphere

Hosted by USIP’s Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding, ex-perts from Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Morning-side Analytics presented their new research on the Russian blogosphere on October 19, while prominent Russia experts and nota-ble bloggers responded. The research team mapped this extensive social network, ana-lyzing more than 11,000 Russian language blogs to understand how politics is dis-cussed, by whom and if there is evidence of political and social mobilization in the blogosphere. The team also analyzed the blogosphere’s place within the overall Rus-sian online and traditional media ecology, including discussion of top political You-Tube videos. Learn more about the “Blogs and Bullets” initiative http://www.usip.org/programs/initiatives/blogs-bullets

When Is International Peacemaking Illegal?

The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project in June up-held laws that make it a crime to provide

“material support” to groups designated by the U.S. State and Treasury Departments as foreign terrorist organizations. USIP held a public discussion on the implications of this decision for international nongovernmental organizations and peace negotiations with a group of legal experts, conflict manage-ment specialists and diplomats on Septem-ber 10. Read more about this event http://www.usip.org/events/when-international-peacemaking-illegal-the-supreme-court-decision-in-holder-v-humanitarian-la and read a recent Peace Brief on this important decision http://www.usip.org/publications/when-international-peacemaking-illegal.

USIP Celebrates “Crescent and Dove” Book Launch

It is nearly impos-sible to speak about contemporary Is-lam without refer-ring to the subject of violence. Behind the headlines, there is a neglected story of how thousands of Muslims draw on their faith and

tradition to build peace and resolve con-flicts. In this context, USIP on October 25 celebrated the publication of “Crescent and Dove: Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam,” edited by USIP’s Qamar-ul Huda, published by the USIP Press.

Ambassador Christopher Hill on the Next Chapter in Iraq

After a seven-year military presence, the U.S. shifts to a civilian-led effort in Iraq, with some 50,000 U.S. troops remaining in the country. Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill spoke at USIP on Au-gust 18, 2010, about this major transition, the current situation in Iraq and relations

Tammy Duckworth, Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Vet-erans Affairs, USIP Executive Vice President Tara Sonen-shine, and Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer, sit on a panel at the “Women and War” Conference.

Fast Fact: There are more than 100 million Twitter accounts. The number of users increases by 300,000 each day.



with the U.S. going forward. Amid major international interest, national and global audiences watched the live webcast to fol-low the discussion held at USIP’s Washing-ton, D.C., headquarters. The discussion was also translated into Arabic by Meedan.net. Close to 7,000 people followed USIP’s live Twitter and blog posts. Read more about Ambassador Hill’s remarks and the Twit-ter and blog discussions. http://www.usip.org/events/ambassador-christopher-hill-the-next-chapter-in-iraq

Seizing the Moment: Media and Peacebuilding

USIP and the Independent Television Ser-vice, in collaboration with Sesame Work-shop and citizen journalists around the world, held a leadership summit on May 12 at the magnificent Newseum in Washing-ton, D.C. Part of the Media as Global Diplo-mat series, this summit considered specific recommendations on ways to harness the power of media for conflict prevention. The hosts convened senior media makers, policymakers and powerful change agents who are central to the development of new ideas with the potential to reduce future conflict.

USIP and NDU’s Historic Memorandum SigningThe U.S. Institute of Peace and the National Defense University (NDU) signed a historic memorandum of agreement on December 16, 2010, that fosters deeper and stronger col-laboration between two national institutions working on national security and interna-tional conflict. At the ceremony, Ambassador Richard H. Solomon, president of USIP, said, “What is important to understand about this piece of paper is that our staffs have already gone to work on bringing efforts that would have been conducted separately to-gether.” This includes work on critical areas such as genocide prevention, dealing with weapons of mass destruction, understanding the lessons on Provincial Reconstruction Teams serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and using technology to aid in crisis mapping and response in places such as Haiti.Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of

Staff, served as the keynote speaker of the “Women and War” session on the changing face of global security.

Above: USIP President Richard H. Solomon and Vice Admiral Ann Rondeau, President of the National Defense Uni-versity, sign the memorandum of agreement, as USIP and NDU executive leadership looks on. Below: Group photo of attendees.

18 PeaceWatch


Building networks, disseminating information

With hate media expanding online, how can we amplify the presence and power of peacebuilding media? USIP has partnered with Georgetown University to create PeaceMedia—a new Web site aggregating the best in peacebuilding media content, research, and funding opportunities so that those who study and those who make me-dia will have readily available resources (see page 9 for a feature on PeaceMedia).

Developing next generation peacebuildersIn 2011, USIP will host U4Ushahidi (Uni-versities for Ushahidi), a pilot program for technologically talented youth from con-flict-prone countries. These young people will be trained in the use of various map-ping technologies and learn about conflict prevention so they can create peacebuild-ing applications of the technology in their home countries. (See http://www.usip.org/newsroom/news/the-us-institute-peace-and-ushahidi-team-launch-student-run-crisis-mapping-program for more about U4Ushahidi.)

We are also working with experts on in-ternational exchange programs to develop Web-based programs that will exponen-

Harnessing the Power of Media to Build Peace

from page 3

to use alternative terms, and which con-texts would make them less inflammatory. Khalil helped reach a consensus when par-ticipants acknowledged that the guide is a living document that can accept new terms and new contexts. In this way, the partici-pants and their Iraqi peers can contribute to a resource that will provide practical guidance for journalists, media monitors and regulators on how to mitigate media incitement to violence.

The workshop ended by reinforcing how Iraqi news directors can use content analy-sis methods to improve reporting at their channels, and Iraqi regulators and media monitors can enhance their capacity to track media coverage with the same tech-niques. Participants also realized that by designing and developing the style guide, they are taking the initiative in mitigating media incitement to violence. One Iraqi news director connected the two parts of the workshop by explaining that if his con-tent analysis showed that a news anchor at his channel was using inflammatory language in his commentary, the director would sit with the anchor to review a cus-tomized version of the style guide and hold the anchor accountable.

To learn more about USIP’s “User Guide-lines for Preventing Media Incitement to Violence in Iraq–Elections Edition,” visit http://www.usip.org/publications/user-guidelines-preventing-media-incitement-violence-in-iraq-elections-edition.

conflict-Sensitive Reporting in Iraq

from page 4

tially increase the number of young people taking part in cross-cultural dialogues.

This tapestry of strategic partnerships reflects the times we live in—when col-laborative new media enable us to benefit from the wisdom of many as never before and take advantage of the synergy between new media and conflict resolution.

These are unprecedented times of breathtaking technological innovation and skyrocketing media consumption. Let us seize the moment for global peace-building.

A 2005 workshop run by the ETC/I program on how inclusive security can bring together grassroots women leaders as well as newly elected parliamentarians.

Engaging the World

from page 15

For more information on USIP’s work on Iran, visit our Iran country page at www.usip.org/countries-continents/asia/iran. To order books visit our online bookstore at bookstore.usip.org.

Negotiating with Iran Wrestling the Ghosts of History

John W. Limbert

2009 • 200 pp. • 6 x 9$16.95 (paper) • 978-1-60127-043-6$40.00 (cloth) • 978-1-60127-044-3

Iran’s Long ReachIran as a Pivotal State in the Muslim World

Suzanne Maloney

2008 • 156 pp. • 6 x 9$14.95 (paper) • 978-1-60127-033-7



People on the Move

Daniel Serwer, for-mer vice president for the Institute’s Centers of Innova-tion, is now a pro-fessorial lecturer and visiting scholar at the School of Advanced Interna-

tional Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Program specialist Stephanie Schwartz has spent the past few months promot-ing her recent book “Youth in Post-Con-flict Reconstruction: Agents of Change,” a highly celebrated

study of the role young people can play as peacemakers in regions of conflict and what impact they have had on the reconstruction process. Schwartz spoke on the topic in No-vember at the World Bank, as part of the Youth2Youth Global Youth Forum.

Allison Sturma was named USIP’s new full-time press secretary and will serve as the primary point of contact for all media inquiries to the Institute. Sturma has been

with USIP for more than two years in vari-ous capacities, most recently in congressio-nal relations and public affairs.

Colette Rausch is now the director of USIP’s Rule of Law Center of Innova-tion, the program she supported for eight years. Rausch has authored nu-merous publications

on the rule of law. She also led the develop-ment of a celebrated justice and security-focused police and civil society dialogue process which has been conducted in Ne-pal, Iraq, Haiti and Afghanistan.

Mo e e d Yu su f , USIP’s South Asia adviser, has been tasked with expand-ing the Institute’s work on Pakistan, with specific focus on Pakistan-U.S. relations, the mili-

tancy challenge, and the country’s political economy. In the past several months, he has traveled to the United Kingdom, Iran and Canada and elsewhere to speak on these topics, in addition to making five trips to Pakistan in 2010 for field research.

Stephanie Fouch is USIP’s new vice presi-dent of Outreach and Communications, overseeing the Institute’s Public Affairs and Publications teams. Fouch comes to USIP from the British Embassy, where she was the Head of Strategic Communication, and led media departments on two continents. Prior to that, she was a founding partner of SPIRE, a branding firm with national clients.

Fast Fact: The United States, India and Japan are the top three countries driving Twitter traffic.

Ann-Louise Colgan is now the director of the Global Peace-building Center, the public educa-tion component of USIP’s new Head-quarters on Consti-tution Avenue. The

GPC will consist of several exhibits to be installed in two phases, designed to teach visitors about international conflict man-agement and peacebuilding. Colgan has worked for Human Rights First and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she directed the Academy for Genocide Prevention and served as the Project Man-ager of the Genocide Prevention Task Force, a joint initiative between the Museum and USIP.


1200 17th Street NW, Suite 200 • Washington, DC 20036-3011 • www.usip.orgPeaceWatch

UNItED StatES INStItUtE of PEacE t H I N k | a c t | t E a c H | t R a I N

We are MovingAs USIP prepares to open the doors to its new home in September 2011, construc-tion of the building’s concrete structure, exterior windows, curtain walls and glass roof systems were completed by the end of 2010. Landscaping on the west facade, front plaza and 23rd Street were also finished, and flagpoles and bike racks were installed outside.

Work for the first part of 2011 will fo-cus on final, yet key, touches—such as setting up the mechanical, electrical and audiovisual systems and putting in office furniture—so that USIP staff can move in this spring!

To ensure that you receive e-mails from us about the headquarters project, events, publications and other resources, please visit www.usip.org/newsletters. In the meantime, please refer to the information below for our headquarters move date.

Until March 15, 20111200 17th St. NW, Ste. 200Washington, D.C. 20036

After March 15, 20112301 Constitution Ave., NWWashington, D.C. 20037

PW Winter2011

Documents

Transcript of PW Winter2011