International Peace Institute
The International Peace Institute (IPI, formerly the International Peace Academy) is an independent non-profit research and policy development institution based in New York. IPI specializes in multilateral approaches to peace and security issues, working closely with the Secretariat and membership of the United Nations. IPI’s primary objective is to promote effective international responses to new and emerging issues and crises through research, analysis, and policy development.
History
The International Peace Institute was created with support from UN Secretary-General U Thant in 1970, originally with the purpose of studying UN peacekeeping and developing peacekeeping doctrine, with strong financial backing from Ruth Forbes Paine Young. Its first President was Maj. Gen. Indar Jit Rikhye, a distinguished Indian commanding officer of UN peacekeeping forces and a former military advisor to the UN Secretary-General. Under his tenure, IPI initiated an innovative program aimed at training civilians and military officers together for the challenges of preventing conflict and building peace.
In 1990, under Olara Otunnu, a Ugandan diplomat and politician, IPI branched out into the political dimensions of war and peace. During this time, IPI became known for its case studies of UN field operations and for its forward-looking analysis on new roles for the UN in the security sphere. Otunnu also initiated IPI's Africa Program, which is currently its longest-running program.
The next IPI President, in 1998, was David M. Malone, a Canadian scholar-diplomat. Malone took IPI more deeply into the realm both of scholarship and of policy advocacy, focused in part on the work of the UN Security Council. IPI broke new ground on the economics of war, on links between the causes of conflict and conflict prevention, the nexus of security and development and on new forms of international governance, such as transitional administration. It became a source of expertise for the media in which Malone and his IPI colleagues published frequent opinion and analytical pieces.
Since 2005, IPI has been led by Terje Rød-Larsen, a principal architect of the Oslo Peace Accords (between the PLO and the Government of Israel) and a Norwegian sociologist and diplomat who has served the UN as its senior envoy in the Middle East. IPI today focuses its work on crisis and the response capacity of international institutions, UN reform, statebuilding/peacebuilding, and has specific regional programs on the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Rød-Larsen serves simultaneously as the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for the Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559.
Officers
Its President is Terje Rød-Larsen, and its Board of Directors is chaired by Rita Hauser.