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Below you will find a chronological list of current Center research projects. You can search by issue or region by selecting the appropriate category. In addition to this sorting control, you can search for specific subjects within the alphabetical, regional, and issue categories by choosing from the selections in the drop-down menu below.
Each project page contains the name of the project director, a description of the project, a list of meetings it has held, and any related publications, transcripts, or videos.
November 2007—Present
| Director: | Paul Stares, General John W. Vessey Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Center for Preventive Action |
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The meeting series focuses attention on situations that are increasingly discernible as "flashpoints" for violent conflict. At each on the record meeting, experts from government, private sector, and nongovernmental communities present different perspectives on and address discrete elements of the problem. The goal of the "Flashpoints" series is to raise public awareness of potentially explosive places and to offer practical recommendations for preventive action in the discussed state or region.
December 10, 2007—Special One-Day Symposium
| Director: | Paul Stares, General John W. Vessey Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Center for Preventive Action |
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Timed with the tenth anniversary of the release of the final report of the widely regarded Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, the symposium, titled "The Future of Conflict Prevention," assessed what we -- the United States, UN, and international community -- have and have not accomplished in terms of conflict prevention (theory and practice) over the last decade, and looked forward to new challenges and requirements for successful preventive action.
May 2007—Present
| Director: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
|---|---|
| Author: | Michelle D. Gavin, Adjunct Fellow for Africa |
This forthcoming report will survey the current situation in Zimbabwe, identifying current structural and legal impediments to economic and political recovery. It will argue that the time to develop post-Mugabe plans is now, and will then develop policy prescriptions for encouraging a transition, containing turmoil in the midst of change, and establishing structures that will contribute to long-term growth and stability in southern Africa.
November 2007—Present
| Director: | Paul Stares, General John W. Vessey Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Center for Preventive Action |
|---|
This series consists of quarterly events sponsored by the Center for Preventive Action, convenes experts from government, private sector, nongovernmental, and civil society to analyze weak or fragile regions and states at risk of conflict in the next two to five years and to devise approaches to work with practitioners to build early policy responses to address those situations.
December 2006—Novemer 2007
| Director: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
|---|---|
| Author: | Reuben E. Brigety |
A major task of early warning of violent conflict is to understand the linkage between political, economic, and social sources and triggers of violence and larger, systemic issues that consistently contribute to unrest. One such dynamic is the international proliferation and trade, licit and illicit, in small arms and light weapons (SALW). This forthcoming report will review the current state of the global SALW problem, examine the U.S. policies for tackling the problem, and then propose tangible, realistic steps for the United States to address SALW proliferation and misuse as a form of systemic conflict prevention.
April 2006—December 2006
| Staff: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
|---|---|
| Author: | Terrence Lyons, Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University |
April 2006—February 2007
| Directors: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies |
|---|---|
| Author: | Eduardo A. Gamarra |
November 2006—April 2007
| Director: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
|---|---|
| Author: | Robert I. Rotberg |
April 17, 2006—October 1, 2007
| Staff: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
|---|
The Potential Conflict Roundtable, quarterly events sponsored by the Center for Preventive Action, convenes experts from government, private sector, nongovernmental, and civil society to analyze weak or fragile regions and states at risk of conflict in the next two to five years and to devise approaches to work with practitioners to build early policy responses to address those situations.
Identifying "hot" conflicts around the world is relatively straightforward. A more difficult task is identifying the situations, or "warm" spots, where there is high-risk of deterioration of political, economic and social conditions but not yet a digression into active social chaos, inter-community polarization, state collapse, and/or violent conflict. Greater effort at monitoring and assessing these incipient conflicts and worst-case scenarios in the coming two to five years is sorely needed. It is in these situations that preventive action initiatives can make a real difference.
While practitioners understand that preventive policies and actions have the greatest chance of reversing deteriorating situations when implemented early and swiftly, a wide gap persists in connecting early warning systems to early policy responses. To help fill this gap, conflict prevention efforts need to engage politicians and practitioners to assist with and promote the formulation and implementation of early responses to potential conflicts.
July 2005—March 2006
| Director: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
|---|---|
| Author: | Barnett R. Rubin |
November 2005—November 2006
| Directors: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies |
|---|---|
| Author: | Richard Lapper |
November 2005—March 2006
| Director: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
|---|---|
| Author: | Blair A. King |
June 2005—Present
| Chair: | Vincent A. Mai, AEA Investors LLC |
|---|---|
| Director: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
| Chair: | Frank G. Wisner, External Affairs, AIG Inc. |
July 2004—July 2005
| Staff: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
|---|---|
| Director: | Mona K. Sutphen, Foreign Service Officer, National Security Council 1991 to 2000 |
May 2004—April 2005
| Director: | David L. Phillips, Executive Director, The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity |
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June 2004—June 2005
| Staff: | William L. Nash, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention and Director of the Military Fellows Program |
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April 1, 2003—June 30, 2004
| Chairs: | Daniel William Christman John G. Heimann, Financial Stability Institute |
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| Staff: | Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies |
April 1, 2003—Present
| Director: | Uffe Ellemann-Jensen |
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The Conflict Assessment Forum is an analytic tool for evaluating pre-conflict or conflict conditions and highlighting countries or regions to be targeted by CPA’s preventive action commissions.
December 1, 2003—February 1, 2004
| Director: | David L. Phillips, Executive Director, The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity |
|---|
This report, by International Affairs Fellow Michelle D. Gavin and sponsored by the Center for Preventive Action, surveys the current situation in Zimbabwe and proposes steps that can increase the likelihood that regime change, when it comes, will bring constructive reform instead of conflict and state collapse.
The Council on Foreign Relations is pleased to announce that Paul Stares is the new General John W. Vessey senior fellow for conflict prevention and director of the Center for Preventive Action (CPA). Stares will focus on strengthening and expanding the work of the CPA, which finds ways to prevent, defuse, or resolve deadly conflicts around the world.
For more information on the CPA, contact:
Paul Stares
General John W. Vessey Senior Fellow for Conflict Prevention
and Director, Center for Preventive Action
+1-202-518-3461
Jamie Ekern
Assistant Director
+1-202-518-3463
Alex Noyes
Research Associate
+1-212-434-9744
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
