Issue

Conflict and Peace Building

Nearly 30 years after the Rwandan genocide, thousands of maimed amputees remind us of the war that took 500,000 lives in 100 days. War leaves marks that cannot be erased—not only in Rwanda, but on every continent.

Reporting from Conflict and Peacebuilding examines the roots of conflict, whether it be religious hatred, sectarian rivalry, a security vacuum, the struggle for natural resources, or the desperation that results from poverty.

Pulitzer Center journalists also cover war’s aftermath: the transitional governments that result in chaos, diplomacy that goes awry, peace talks that never end, and the people who suffer the consequences, young and old. We see the children who go hungry, lose their homes, leave school, become combatants, or join the jihad.

Often the end to conflict leaves turmoil in its wake while the road to peace seems circuitous: In South Sudan, rebel-commanders-turned politicians plunge the country into civil war. In the U.S., troops return home from one war only to be re-deployed to another. But everywhere, in every conflict, there are also voices crying out for peace, determined to heal the divide.

 

Conflict and Peace Building

Nablus: Food and Resistance

Nablus has garnered a storied reputation as a refuge for radicals and a symbol for Palestinian resistance. But it also holds some of the richest culinary and agricultural traditions in the West Bank.

Jerusalem and the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

Spending a day in the East Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter highlights the beauty of the Palestinain food culture, spotlights the Palestinian struggle, and personifies the daily clash of people, politics, and religion in one of the world's most disputed cities. 

 

Militarizing the Caspian

Oil in the Caspian Sea is making Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan rich. But with Iran and Russia on the sea, too, is it fueling a naval arms race as well?

Afghanistan: On Love and Suicide

Anonymous and spoken, landai , two-line Pashtun poems, have served for centuries as a means of self-expression for women. Today they are an important vehicle of public dissent.

Palestinian Youth at a Crossroads

With the economy slowing and the peace process in stagnation, the West Bank's younger generation is at a political crossroad.

Libya: The Rebirth of a Nation

The revolution that toppled the regime of Col. Moammar Qaddafi brought Libya a sense of pride, hope and renewed engagement with the West, but ahead lies the challenge of building a democratic framework.

In Iraq, Looking at What’s Been Left Behind

American forces are withdrawing from Iraq, bringing a painful chapter in the history of both countries to a close while raising new questions about the shape of post-U.S. Iraq.

This Week: Kabila's Clutch on Congo

This week: the far reaches of President Kabila's Kleptocracy, refugees born without a nation, and the forgotten story of Latin America's Schindler.