Tuesday, December 10, 2013

USIP Holding "Peace Games" on Syria

The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in holding an inaugural "PeaceGame" this week at the think tank's headquarters to try to "chart the best possible peace for Syria."  The FP Group is co-hosting the event.

Here is more about the Game from a press release:
Participants in the inaugural PeaceGame will begin with a discussion of potential scenarios for peace in Syria and the steps and conditions necessary to achieve it. Throughout the day and a half-long Game, participants will assume roles representing different stakeholders in the Syrian war.  They will explore four scenarios representing different phases of a peace process: Achieving a Near-Term Political Solution; Pacification; Transformation and Institutionalization; and Stabilization.
The event, scheduled for December 9 and 10, is being webcast live hereHere is a detailed agenda for the Game, which is open to credentialed press.

Here are the participants:
  • Peter Ackerman
  • Henri Barkey
  • Esther Brimmer
  • Daniel Brumberg
  • Ambassador Maura Connelly
  • Paula Dobriansky
  • Andrew Exum
  • Nelson Ford
  • Ambassador Edward “Skip” Gnehm
  • Karen House
  • Lise Howard
  • Steven Heydemann 
  • Ambassador James Jeffrey
  • Murhaf Jouejati
  • Ambassador Ted Kattouf
  • Mark Katz
  • Kemal Kirisci
  • Steven Koltai
  • Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer
  • George Lopez
  • Kristin Lord
  • Colum Lynch
  • Firas Maksad
  • Robert Malley
  • Sharon Morris
  • Robert Mosbacher, Jr.
  • Ambassador George Moose
  • Mouaz Moustafa
  • Manal Omar
  • Carina Perelli
  • Kenneth Pollack
  • Ambassador Mitchell Reiss
  • David Rothkopf
  • Paul Saunders
  • Mark Schneider
  • Jeremy Shapiro
  • Randa Slim
  • Julianne Smith
  • Andrew Tabler
  • Ambassador William B. Taylor
  • James Traub
  • Casimir Yost

USIP says that this event launches a twice-yearly, global joint-planning exercise to bring together principals from public and private sectors to game out alternative futures for some of the world's most volatile and important regions.

Here is a Foreign Policy article on the simulation titled "What Does War Gaming for Peace Look Like."

In related news, USIP has conducted the first in a series of "PeaceTech Camps" in Iraq, an initiative that connects technologists who are skilled at low-cost, easy-to-use technologies with civil society organizations that work on a range of problems within Iraq.

USIP was recently ranked as the 18th best think tank in the US by the University of Pennsylvania annual think tank rankings.