Fragility & Peace


Despite declines in interstate conflict, violence prompted by weak institutions, protracted grievances, broken social compacts, illicit transnational networks, and outside intervention have redefined notions of conflict and fragility. ISE seeks to unpack these new collective understandings, exploring features of conflict and violence and broader drivers such as climate change, poor social cohesion, and migration. We are supporting new and innovative perspectives on peacebuilding, informed by comprehensive analyses of modern peace processes.

Participatory Development: The Case for Substantive Facilitation

Afghanistan’s Citizens’ Charter program is national in scope, which means that the core model of facilitation must be able to adapt to a tremendously broad range of socioeconomic environments. This is particularly important as the…

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Lessons from Peacebuilding and Reconstruction Experience

The conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya have caused untold levels of damage, resulted in significant loss of life, decimated the physical assets of the countries, and ripped apart social fabrics. Under the most…

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Towards a Future Research Agenda in Fragile Contexts

The challenge of addressing conditions of fragility remains central from the perspectives of development and security. Fragility is a shared problem for the research, policy, and implementation communities, but too often researchers fail to produce…

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Securing Stability Through Peace Agreements

The recent increase in the number of major global conflicts calls for a re-examination of how such violence can end and how peace can be sustained. Although peace agreements have a mixed historical success, their…

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State Function: Security
Insight & Analysis: Fragility & Peace
ISE at USIP Event: Ending Civil Wars: How Can We Succeed with Limited Opportunities?

As a part of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ ongoing project on Civil Wars, Violence and International Responses, the second volume of a special issue of the journal Dædalus was released in January 2018 to…

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Clare Lockhart and Homi Kharas - World Bank Fragility Forum 2018

ISE Director Clare Lockart and Brookings Interim Vice President & Director Homi Kharas are interviewed on the sidelines of the World Bank’s 2018 Fragility Forum.

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State Function: Governance, Security
Insight & Analysis: Development Partnerships, Fragility & Peace