More Links in Peace Programs

Real Lives, Real Change: Conflict Resolution Program

Director Looks for Opportunity in Dire Situations

From the time she was little, Stacia George knew two things: She wanted to help people, and she was going to travel to the Congo. Learn more »

Podcast Bolsters Young Congolese Women

Laetitia Muabila Bangu-Bangu wants to help women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo find their voices. Learn more »

Malian Mothers Want Peace So They Can See Their Children

The Carter Center is the official observer of Mali’s peace agreement, keeping track of the steps each side takes to implement the pact. From our archives, meet two women in Mali who sent their children far away to keep them safe until lasting peace comes to their land. Learn more »

Blog | Respect Bridges Differences During Protest

By Johnny Ndebe, a national dispute resolution monitor for The Carter Center in Liberia

Last year, I was notified that a crowd of protesters had blockaded a bridge a few hours from Monrovia, Liberia, where I work as the national dispute monitor with The Carter Center. Learn more »

Blog | Carter Center Pursues Mali Peace Agreement Action

By Jason Carter, chair of the Carter Center Board of Trustees

Jason Carter met with Col. Assimi Goïta to discuss actions taken toward the Mali Peace Agreement created in 2015 and eradication efforts of Guinea worm disease. Learn more »

Blog | The Carter Center’s Long Standing History of Waging Peace in War-Torn Nations

By Paige Alexander, chief executive officer of The Carter Center

We at The Carter Center are horrified by the devastation in Ukraine. As we have helped other nations to rebuild after wars, we will continue waging peace. Learn more »

Blog | Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Complicates the Situation in Syria

Analysis by Hari Prasad, Program Associate, Conflict Resolution Program

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has had obvious effects on Ukraine and Eastern Europe, but its current and potential destabilizing effects in Syria are not receiving the attention they desperately need. Learn more »

Vice President Ready to Keep the Peace

Barbara Smith, vice president of the Carter Center’s peace programs, says she was born to her line of work. Her mother is from Germany and taught her the value of international perspectives. Her father was in the military and ingrained in her the importance of service. Learn more »

Blog | New Report Spotlights Dangerous Unexploded Weapons in Syria

By Hampton Stall, Senior Program Associate, The Carter Center

After the Mozambique civil war ended in 1992, demining experts needed 23 years to clear the 86,000 unexploded weapons left behind. A just-released Carter Center report suggests that there could be more than three times that amount of unexploded ordnance in Syria, where demining efforts have yet to begin. Learn more »

Blog | Disinformation, Propaganda, and the War in Ukraine

By Sarah E. Morris, head of instruction and engagement at the Emory University Libraries

The war in Ukraine is a terrible situation that is keeping many of us glued to our devices, looking for updates and ways to help Ukraine. Unfortunately, large amounts of misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda are swirling around, creating confusion and disruption. Learn more »

Blog | Russia-Ukraine Conflict Exposes Need for Digital Geneva Convention

Russia has long treated Ukraine as a proving ground for testing its novel and destructive cyberweapons. In 2015, Russia launched a cyberattack on the power grid in Ukraine, plunging 230,000 civilians into darkness and cutting off power to homes, hospitals, and schools in the dead of winter. Repairs took months to complete. Two years later, Russia launched another attack that crippled government, financial, and energy institutions, shut down nuclear safety monitoring systems, and permanently erased public and private data. The attack spilled over Ukraine’s borders, disrupting private-sector entities such as Maersk, FedEx, and Merck and costing an estimated $10 billion. Learn more »

Strengthening Young People’s Role in Sudan’s Democratic Future

On Oct. 25, 12 days after this story was published, members of Sudan’s military seized control of the government. The Carter Center issued a statement condemning the coup and is now monitoring developments there. It remains committed to supporting the people of Sudan. Learn more »

Blog | Peace and Health Go Hand in Hand. We Must Pursue Both.

By Dr. Kashef Ijaz, vice president, health programs, and Barbara J. Smith, vice president, peace programs

Back in the turbulent 1960s, there was a popular poster — today it would be a meme on social media — that said, "War is not healthy for children and other living things." Learn more »

Blog | Youth Key in Sudan's Shift to Democracy

By Ben Spears, senior program associate, Conflict Resolution Program

This is an exciting time in Sudan. After 30 years, a period marked by civil war in Darfur and other areas of the country, Omar al-Bashir was forced from power in a revolution led largely by young women and men. Now Sudan is working out a new identity as it transitions to peace and democracy, and young people can lead the way. Learn more »

Blog | Center Aims to Mitigate Possible Election Violence in Some Communities

The Carter Center is partnering with Cure Violence Global and Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative on a project to mitigate violence that could erupt in some U.S. communities in the days before and after the November election. Learn more »

Using Conflict Data to Help Demining Efforts in Syria

Even as conflict in many areas of Syria subsides, dangers still remain – including abandoned or unexploded weapons that could kill or maim unsuspecting civilians as they try to rebuild their lives. Learn more »

Promoting Peace in Mali

When the Carter Center team arrived in the northern Mali town of Gao one warm, blustery afternoon in February, tensions were running high. Two days earlier, a high-ranking general had been assassinated while tending his animals just outside of town. The killing cast a pall over a major achievement that took place earlier that morning: the deployment of the first 240 soldiers in the newly reconstituted Malian army, made up of combatants from three different elements that fought against each other during Mali’s civil war. Learn more »

Analyzing Shifts in Territorial Control within Syria Offers Glimpse of Future Challenges

Nine years have passed since the conflict in Syria began. In recent months, as opposition strongholds have fallen and frontlines have shifted, the map of territorial control suggests that the conflict is entering its endgame. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Staying Positive, Building Hope

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer

At this time of great challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been deeply moved by the commitment of our Carter Center staff to our mission to help the world’s poorest people. Indeed, our aim to wage peace, fight disease, and build hope has never been more urgent than it is today. Learn more »

Malian Mothers Want Peace So They Can See Their Children

Aisha Ahmed and Safi Inorano go about their daily tasks with holes in their hearts. While they work as cleaners on the U.N. base in Kidal, Mali, their daughters live with relatives hundreds of miles away in cities that – unlike their own – have functioning schools. Learn more »

‘We Don’t Want War’

Leaders and everyday citizens in central Mali seek solutions to tribal and political conflict that has disrupted their lives. Learn more »

Under the Malian Sun: The Carter Center Observes the Implementation of a Peace Agreement in Mali

One bright morning in mid-June, a U.N. convoy rolls through the small, dusty town of Kidal in Mali’s northern desert. The temperature is already well on its way to a high of 114, and few people are on the street to witness a Carter Center staffer in a blue flak jacket and helmet clamber out of the back of an armored personnel carrier (what a civilian might call a tank) into the brutal heat. Learn more »

Blog | Four Years After Peace Accord, What Has Really Changed?

By John Goodman, associate director in the Conflict Resolution Program

The Carter Center's John Goodman, associate director in the Conflict Resolution Program, spoke recently to Al Jazeera's Nicolas Haque in Bamako, Mali, about ongoing violence and instability in Mali and how the people there have seen few, if any, dividends from the peace agreement signed four years ago. Learn more »

Blog | Q&A: ISIS Down, But Not Out, in Syria

Just a few years ago, ISIS controlled giant swaths of Syria – its combined lands totaled more than 34,000 square miles, just a little less than you’ll find in the state of Indiana. Today, it has lost all that territory. But that doesn’t mean it is no longer a threat to the people of Syria. Individuals and groups with ties to ISIS continue to carry out attacks, even as the nature and number of those attacks change. Learn more »

Waging Peace Around the World

Building a peaceful world involves more than ending war. A peaceful world is one in which justice thrives, everyone’s rights are respected, and people have access to essentials. The Carter Center has dozens of programs and projects dedicated to making the dream of peace a reality. This slide show explores a handful of them. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Everyday People Can Do Exceptional Things

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer

At The Carter Center, we believe people can improve their own lives when they have the right skills, knowledge, and access to resources. I’d like to introduce you to a few people who are making a real difference in their communities. Learn more »

Tunisian Professor Empowers Youth to Protect Them

Mongia Nefzi Souahi, a professor at Zitouna University in Tunisia, knows what draws young people to violent extremism. She spent much of the past year trying to insulate 100 at-risk young people in the town of Kasserine – which CNN has called “the Tunisian town where ISIS makes militants” – from the lure of jihadis. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Small Victories Add Up

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer

It’s no secret that this world is full of problems—some big and terrifying, some small and trivial. It may seem overwhelming at times, but it doesn’t have to be paralyzing. Learn more »

A Grassroots Approach: Training Community Leaders to Prevent Violent Extremism

In 2014, The Carter Center launched what is now called the Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Extremism Project. Staff first conducted an in-depth analysis of Daesh’s recruitment propaganda and then began training religious and community leaders to develop messaging to counteract extremist propaganda in all forms, whether it comes from Daesh or Islamophobic hate groups. Learn more »

Blog | Pathways to Peace: Prevention

By Jordan Ryan, vice president, peace programs

Over the course of six recent posts, I shared some of the approaches to waging peace that that The Carter Center and its founder, former President Jimmy Carter, have developed or learned over many years. Learn more »

Blog | Center Works to Understand and Counter the Rise of Islamophobia

By Houda Abadi, associate director, Conflict Resolution Program

Hate crimes in the U.S. against Muslims or people who look as if they may be Muslim are at an all-time high. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, from 2015 to 2016 the number of anti-Muslim hate groups in the U.S. grew 197 percent and anti-Muslim hate crimes surged 67 percent. From January to July 2017, there were 63 attacks on mosques. Learn more »

Blog | Pathways to Peace: The Sixth Principle

By Jordan Ryan, vice president, peace programs

The Carter Center’s motto is “Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope.” In these times, the task for peacemakers is urgent. Learn more »

Blog | Pathways to Peace: The Fourth Principle

By Jordan Ryan, vice president, peace programs

In these times, the task for peacemakers is urgent. Learn more »

Blog | Center Initiative Studies How Daesh Exploits Children

The Carter Center’s Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Extremism initiative has issued a paper that analyzes how the Islamic extremist group targets children in its recruitment materials and uses them in its operations. Learn more »

Huda Shafig: Pursuing Peace

Going to university changed Huda Shafig. Until then, she said, she had “kind of lived in a bubble,” mostly unaware of the impact of the conflict raging in parts of Sudan outside of her hometown of Khartoum. Learn more »

Blog | We Accomplish Much by Working Together

By Jimmy Carter, co-founder, The Carter Center

After leaving the White House, Rosalynn and I searched our hearts for ways to use our unique position to help those less fortunate around the world. We knew that two issues were of paramount importance: advancing peace and preventing human suffering. Learn more »

A Step Toward Peace in Sudan: Carter Center Brings Together International Conflict Resolution Experts and Key Sudanese Stakeholders

In the mid-1990s, Monica McWilliams spent two years at negotiating tables sitting next to the leader of an armed group that had tortured and killed her best friend during the Northern Ireland conflict known as The Troubles. Learn more »

Blog | War of Words: Helping Muslim Leaders Fight Terrorist Propaganda

Every year, thousands of people leave their home countries and travel to Syria or Iraq to join Daesh, also known as ISIS. Why? What compels these people — most of them young, most of them men — to leave their families and the relative comforts of their homes to fight and die in places where they have no ties? How can we stop others from following in their footsteps? Learn more »

Blog | Syria: In Search of Solutions - Webcast Archive

In case you missed “Syria: In Search of Solutions” at The Carter Center on Oct. 13, 2015, an archived version can be viewed below. Learn more »

Mining the Web

Chris McNaboe knows his Syrian opposition armed groups. For the current conflict, he can tell you exactly when a particular brigade formed from previously separate battalions around Aleppo, Syria; how many people are in the brigade; their reason for forming; and what weapons they have. The primary source for this top-level insider info? Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Learn more »

Blog | Carter Center Pursues Lasting Peace in the Sudans

The geographic lines dividing Sudan and South Sudan “are completely blurry, so we focus on the lines that connect us,” Professor Jok Madut Jok, undersecretary in South Sudan’s Ministry of Culture, said during a “Conversations at The Carter Center” on Oct. 15. Learn more »

Dialogue Aims to Build Trust, Strengthen Peace Between Sudan and South Sudan

Prominent leaders from Sudan and South Sudan have come together twice this spring to discuss how to strengthen peace and create a lasting understanding between the two countries. Learn more »

Blog | Developments in the Middle East and North Africa

In view of the pace of change in political events taking place in the Middle East and North Africa, it’s not surprising that the context of an interview completed on April 6 would already be slightly outdated just weeks later. Learn more »

Blog | Share Your Thoughts: What Does "Peace" Mean to You?

Peace is more than the absence of war. There is an inner peace that comes from personal security and personal freedom. Peace also includes the sense of a mother and father that their children will live, that they’ll have food for them to eat, and that they won’t be subject to a lifetime of suffering that could have been prevented. Learn more »

Blog | Carter Center Prepares to Observe Sudan Referendum

The people of South Sudan will vote beginning Jan. 9 to decide whether they wish to remain unified with the North or to form a separate country. Hear more about the significance of the upcoming referendum, the challenges ahead, and the Carter Center's contribution to the process. Learn more »

Blog | Aijalon Gomes Returns Home to Boston with Jimmy Carter

On August 27, American teacher Aijalon Gomes was reunited with his family in Boston after being imprisoned seven months in North Korea. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter had embarked on a humanitarian mission to obtain Gomes’ release after he was arrested last January and subsequently sentenced to eight years of hard labor and fined about $600,000. Learn more »

Blog | Homecoming: American Joyful, Relieved to Be Back Home After Long Ordeal

After seven months imprisoned in North Korea, American teacher Aijalon Gomes was reunited with his family this afternoon at Boston Logan Airport. The Carter Center delegation's plane landed at 2 p.m. today. President Carter embarked last Tuesday on a humanitarian mission to obtain Gomes release after he was arrested last January and subsequently sentenced. Learn more »

East Jerusalem Family Forced to Demolish Part of Own Home, Center Expert Cites Abuse of Permit System

From the roof of his family's home in East Jerusalem within the walls of the Old City, Raed Sa'id points to the golden Dome of The Rock, which is glowing in the late-afternoon sun. Learn more »

Middle East Dispatches

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visits Syria, Israel, West Bank, and Gaza. Learn more »

Blog | The Carter Center Conflict Resolution Program: Q&A With Hrair Balian

Hrair Balian, director, Conflict Resolution Program, joined The Carter Center in 2008. Balian oversees the program’s efforts to monitor conflicts around the world and coordinates the Center’s cross-program efforts in the Middle East. He is also an adjunct professor at the Emory University Law School, teaching an advanced international negotiations seminar. Learn more »

The Carter Center Conflict Resolution Program - Q&A With Hrair Balian

The Carter Center Conflict Resolution Program works to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts by monitoring early warnings in fragile states and through timely, targeted, and impartial interventions. When possible and appropriate, rapid-response interventions--negotiations, mediations, or facilitation--are accomplished through the personal involvement of President and Mrs. Carter, with the support of program staff. In other instances, senior staff conduct interventions with support from senior diplomats around the world. We also engage in sustained post-conflict peacebuilding to promote reconciliation and the restoration of the rule of law. Additionally, the program targets challenging contemporary issues of international peace and security not addressed by other institutions. Learn more »

President Carter Q&A on Middle East

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter led a mission to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan April 13-21, 2008, as part of the Carter Center's ongoing effort to support peace, democracy, and human rights in the region. Accompanying him were former First Lady Rosalynn Carter; son Jeffrey Carter; former U.S. Congressman Stephen Solarz; Dr. Robert Pastor, senior Carter Center advisor; and Hrair Balian, director of the Center's Conflict Resolution Program. Learn more »

Carter Center Slideshow: Strengthening Liberia's Rule of Law

Involved with Liberia since 1991, when invited by West Aftican leaders during the country's first civil war to assist in the peace process, The Carter Center works to strengthen the rule of law. Learn more »

Palestinians in Gaza Ask Jimmy Carter: Former U.S. President Answers Videotaped Questions

Gazans gather, above, to watch the April 21 Jerusalem press conference of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Click here, or on images above, to view video footage of the press conference and the Palestinian observers in Gaza. Learn more »

Carter Center Slideshow: Life on the Edge: Ecuador's Border with Colombia

The Carter Center conducted a conflict–related development analysis in two towns along the Ecuador northern border. The analysis focuses on development in the border zone, including access to justice and human rights, citizen security, and youth and social inclusion, and will serve as input for the creation of public policies for development in the northern border zone by Ecuador’s government. Learn more »

Blog | Two Palestines? What is Risked by a "West Bank first" Policy? Q&A with Middle East Experts

In the following Q&A, panel members from “Two Palestines? What is Risked by a ‘West Bank First’ Policy?” held at The Carter Center in July 2007, answer audience questions that remained following the event. Learn more »

Carter Center Experts Q&A - Two Palestines? What is Risked by a "West Bank first" Policy? Q&A with Middle East Experts

In the following Q&A, panel members from "Two Palestines? What is Risked by a 'West Bank First' Policy?," held at The Carter Center in July 2007, answer audience questions that remained following the event. Learn more »

Q&A With Matthew Hodes, J.D. Former Director, Carter Center Conflict Resolution Program

Many of the governments and nations sustained by Cold War patronage are now facing internal opposition as they attempt to adapt to the new world order. While several of the current conflicts cross borders and involve multiple state actors, these conflicts also often have ethnic, religious, and/or other identity-based roots. Learn more »