USIP describes the framework as follows - USIP-developed methodologies for measurement of the transformation from war to peace were recently used at the Department of State's Foreign Service Institute (FSI) and the US Army War College (AWC). At FSI, classes in the Integrated Conflict Analysis Framework (ICAF) are part of courses that aim to build an interagency community of professionals trained to participate in reconstruction and stabilization operations. ICAF incorporates USIP's conflict transformation framework, which tracks drivers of conflict and institutional performance. At the AWC, a recent workshop used USIP's measurement framework for a hypothetical scenario on Chad.
Dennis Skocz, a specialist on strategic planning and professional development, lauded the USIP framework. "The concepts are clear, intuitive, and flexible. Aspects of a conflict that might be ignored using a stove-piped approach to lining up tasks come out through the analysis, allowing for a holistic response to situations that typically involve many 'moving pieces,'" he said. "As for the metric framework, it's an idea whose time has clearly come. It combines the sophistication that comes from almost two years of development along with a foundation in the conflict analysis that USIP has pioneered."
Also posted this month - Integrated Security Assistance: The 1207 Program by Robert M. Perito.
In January 2008, the US Departments of State and Defense requested that the United States Institute of Peace conduct an independent assessment of the process by which projects funded under Section 1207 of the National Defense Authorization Acts of FY 2006 and FY 2007 were developed, reviewed, and approved for funding. They asked that the study include recommendations for changes in the application and approval procedures to ensure that project proposals were reviewed through an efficient, transparent, and well-understood interagency process. The Institute agreed to conduct the study because the 1207 program is an example of the US military's growing involvement in integrated "whole-of-government" approaches to US security assistance programs. The study is based on interviews with staff members of the Senate and House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees and representatives from the Office of Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Department of State, and the US Agency for International Development.
And on Iraq - USIP Dialogue on Media and Conflict in Iraq Spawns Call for Partnership. (Full text in English) (Full text in Arabic)
USIP convened a groundbreaking conference on media and conflict in Iraq in Istanbul May 14-16, 2008. The event was part of the Institute's Iraq and its Neighbors project and was co-hosted by the Center for Sustainable Peace at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul.
Participants included media executives from Iraq and across the region. These executives, who represented entertainment, news, citizen media and new media technology, met with officials from the Iraqi government and international experts to explore media's effect on the conflict and vice versa.
The participants called for "a partnership between a government committed to freedom of expression and media committed to responsible use of the means of communication" to enable both to weather the current conflict and look forward to a more peaceful future.
The meeting resulted in a two-page "Istanbul Declaration" featuring specific recommendations whose implementation should be feasible within the next five years.