Category Archives: Patricia Taft

Fund for Peace Names New Leadership Team

The Board of Directors of the Fund for Peace is pleased to announce a new leadership team. Paul Turner has assumed the position of President and Executive Director as of January 10, 2022 and is joined by newly appointed Vice Presidents Patricia Taft Nasri and Nate Haken to lead the organization. As President and Executive […]

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Nigeria Briefing: A Security Framework for the Niger Delta

By Sarah Cockey, Natalie Fiertz, Nate Haken, Patricia Taft Nasri, Wendy Wilson, Daniel Woodburn Although overall levels in violence in the Niger Delta have improved over the last five years, there are increased economic pressures which have the potential to reverse those gains unless government, civil society, and development actors work to develop a security […]

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Nigeria COVID Briefing: A Stress Test of Nigerian Resilience

By Charles Fiertz, Nate Haken, Patricia Taft Nasri, Chloe Pan, Nkasi Wodu So far, Nigeria has managed the health aspects of the COVID-19 crisis much better than many countries, certainly better than the United States, based on the number of reported cases and deaths, due to a strong and proactive approach to the prevention of […]

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Fragile States Index 2020

BY FUND FOR PEACE The Fragile States Index, produced by The Fund for Peace, is a critical tool in highlighting not only the normal pressures that all states experience, but also in identifying when those pressures are pushing a state towards the brink of failure. By highlighting pertinent issues in weak and failing states, The […]

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Libya Continues Path as the Decade’s Most Worsened Country

BY PATRICIA TAFT Libya’s long-running conflict and instability has been well documented by the Fragile States Index (FSI), wherein it rates as the most-worsened country in the world for the past decade, and also holds the record for the greatest year-on-year worsening, when it worsened by 25.8 points in the 2012 FSI. In the 2020 […]

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In the Wake of Al-Bashir, Women of Sudan Bring a Glimmer of Hope

BY PATRICIA TAFT AND WENDY WILSON In April 2019, a photograph of a woman dressed in white, standing atop a car and rallying a large group of protestors went viral. The woman, a student named Alaa Salah, had had enough. And by the size and passion of those chanting with her, so had many others. […]

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Fragile States Index 2019

BY FUND FOR PEACE The Fragile States Index, produced by The Fund for Peace, is a critical tool in highlighting not only the normal pressures that all states experience, but also in identifying when those pressures are pushing a state towards the brink of failure. By highlighting pertinent issues in weak and failing states, The […]

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Rumblings of Arab Spring 2.0

BY PATRICIA TAFT In late 2010, in a city in central Tunisia, a young street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself ablaze in a final act of defiance and frustration after police confiscated his wares on the street. While his protest may have been localized, the sentiment was not. After nearly three decades of falling […]

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The Caucasus Give Cause for Cautious Optimism

BY PATRICIA TAFT Straddling Europe and Asia, the South Caucasus has long been considered a region of strategic importance for past empires and modern-day superpowers. It is also a land where the echoes of the Cold War continue to play out decades after the collapse of the Former Soviet Union and the realignment of the […]

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Beyond Hashtags: Leveraging Networks for the Prevention of Election Violence in Nigeria

BY PATRICIA TAFT AND NATE HAKEN In the last decade, social networks and information technology have developed in such a way as to contribute to the proliferation of both spontaneous and coordinated political violence in Nigeria. However, at the same time, a robust network of peace actors has emerged to prevent and manage election violence. […]

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