Mission

The mandate of the United States Institute of Peace, as established by Congress, is to support the development, transmission, and use of knowledge to promote peace and curb violent international conflict. To this end, the United States Institute of Peace Act directs the Institute to serve the American people and government through the "widest possible range of education and training, basic and applied research opportunities, and peace information services on the means to promote international peace and the resolution of conflicts among the nations and peoples of the world without recourse to violence."

The Institute carries out its broad congressional mandate through six interconnected and mutually reinforcing activities:

• Expanding society's knowledge about the changing nature and conduct of international relations and the management of international conflicts—identifying the best practices of conflict prevention, management, and reconciliation and of peaceful statecraft.


• Supporting policymakers in the Legislative and Executive Branches—mobilizing the best national and international talent from research organizations, academia, and government and providing independent and creative assessments of how to deal with international conflicts by political means.


• Facilitating the resolution of international disputes—organizing and supporting dialogues within and among parties to conflicts and providing technical assistance addressing emerging, ongoing, and recent disputes in areas of high priority to the United States.


• Training international affairs professionals from the United States and abroad in conflict prevention, management, and resolution techniques—working with U.S. and foreign diplomatic and military personnel and selected officials of international organizations and non-governmental organizations.


• Strengthening the education of emerging generations of young people in the United States and in foreign zones of conflict—by building the capacity in educational institutions from high school through graduate education in the United States and in zones of conflict to teach about and practice peacemaking and conflict management.


• Increasing public understanding about the nature of international conflicts, as well as approaches to their prevention, management, and resolution—using radio, publications, the Internet, and other electronic forms of outreach.