“Opportunity”: When asked to describe this moment for the U.S. peacebuilding field, this was the most common word that hundreds of participants at the “American Peacebuilding as a Crossroads” conference chose. It would have been understandable if participants had...
Are we facing the dusk or dawn in the field of peacebuilding? Yes! Peacebuilding approaches that evolved from the end of the Soviet Union to the COVID pandemic are under duress, if not in collapse. Many analysts try to fit the emergent shape-shifting of U.S. domestic...
The U.S. government has launched a strategy to restore “American preeminence” in the Western Hemisphere through largely military means, “identifying drug and human trafficking” as a primary threat to U.S. security. Since September 2025, the U.S. military has conducted...
In July 1989, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science published a special issue entitled “Peace Studies: Past and Future.” These essays were to explain the significant growth of American collegiate programs examining problems of war, peace,...
American peacebuilding stands at a crossroads. To chart the way forward, we must recall and reclaim the core ideas, adaptations, and innovations that shaped earlier federal investments in the study and promotion of peace—particularly those surrounding the creation and...
As the United States navigates a new war in the Middle East and other global conflicts persist, the U.S. Congress should assert its vast power to promote peace. Members on both sides of the aisle have played pivotal roles in shaping past U.S. initiatives aimed at...
The power of artificial intelligence (AI) is palpable from Bangladesh to Brussels, and from Syria to Syracuse. In this issue of Peace Policy, authors offer glimpses of how AI is already reshaping the conditions for peace and conflict. AI is altering how people relate...
Syria’s transition after the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024 marks a historic turn, but the sociopolitical and psychological legacies of violence remain deeply entrenched. Peacebuilders in Syria and in the Diaspora are now engaged in nascent...
In plural societies, peacemaking is the everyday work of fostering coexistence across ethical, religious, and political differences. Artificial intelligence (AI) is disrupting this work by reshaping how people decide what to trust, and how they negotiate boundaries,...
The artificial intelligence (AI) arms race is afoot and must be won, according to many national security elites. In January, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced a strategy to “accelerate America’s military AI dominance” and become “an ‘AI-first’ warfighting force...
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping not just how we process information, but how we relate to each other. Designed for helpfulness and harmony, many AI systems now simulate relationships. But there’s a structural flaw: they offer care without counter-needs,...
Not every peacebuilding challenge is a data challenge, but all data choices are peacebuilding choices. In conflict environments, what information gets collected and from whom, what categories or labels are chosen, and who benefits from the insights are technical...