Aron Lund (Distinguished Scholar 2017) explains how disparate rebel groups united to overthrow the authoritarian regime of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in 2024. Insight into Assad’s ouster serves as a framework for understanding how insurgent organizations compete and coalesce during war and operate after war if they prevail.

“The most sectarian, most hardline group is also the one that’s now in power and has an interest in preventing [violence] for basic stability and to manage relations with the West,” says Lund, noting that the calculation could later change.

“We are honored to welcome Byron Boston,” said Daniel F. Wilhelm, president of the Foundation. “Byron brings a wealth of leadership experience in the worlds of business, finance, and investment that will be a welcome asset to The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation board. His deep interest in and commitment to addressing pressing global challenges will likewise enhance our efforts to produce and disseminate knowledge to address violence in its many forms.”

A new HFG Research and Policy in Brief report examines the “vicious cycle” of conflict and corruption in postconflict state such as Afghanistan, Guatemala, and South Sudan.In their synthesis of literature on the topic, authors Diana Chigas and Cheyanne Scharbatke-Church, codirectors of the Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program at Besa Global, explain how corruption can become an entrenched feature of political economies and a major obstacle to building a lasting peace once war ends.

The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation was pleased to support the eighth edition of the Paris Peace Forum, which took place from October 29 to October 30 in Paris, France under the theme “New Coalitions for Peace, People and the Planet.” The Foundation also co-organized the panel “From Local to Global: How Polarization Challenges the International Order,” which was moderated by HFG’s president Daniel F. Wilhelm.

In this Polarization Project interview, Distinguished Fellow of Practice Greg Berman talks with Matthew Levendusky, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, it’s possible to lower the nation’s collective political temperature.

“It is important to try to get people to communicate better so that they can come away with a deeper understanding of why people believe what they believe,” he says.

Amid growing nuclear capabilities and weakening restraints, a group of experts convened by Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation discuss, assess, and evaluate the current international strategic nuclear environment.

This new report highlights the findings of that convening and identifies the distinct normative shift of nuclear complacency, in which the robust scholarship, activism, and diplomacy of the past 80 years have been replaced by public indifference, political de-prioritization, and military buildup of these weapons.

In this Polarization Project interview, Distinguished Fellow of Practice Greg Berman speaks with Lilliana Mason, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University, about the origins of political violence in the United States and how it undermines democratic norms and principles.

“What political polarization does is take people who are already unstable and point them in the direction of politics. They are being fed information that makes them believe that there’s an existential threat coming from the other side. That’s what creates political violence.”— Lilliana Mason

Amid a surge of politically motivated attacks, an HFG-funded report from researchers at New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights reveals how violent extremist networks exploit mainstream and semi-encrypted platforms to radicalize followers, celebrate attacks, and normalize political violence in the U.S.

“We examine violent online mobilization across the full ideological spectrum—far-right, far-left, violent Islamist, and nihilistic violent extremists—revealing both their distinctive tactics and surprising points of convergence,” says co-author Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat, policy advisor on technology and law at NYU Stern.

The unfinished business of Côte d’Ivoire’s failed peace and reconciliation mechanisms offers lessons for postconflict repair work in Africa and beyond at a time when scholars and practitioners alike are trying to understand how to achieve sustainable peace.

HFG Grantee Francis Abugbilla examines why Côte d’Ivoire’s attempts at national truth and reconciliation have failed to deliver meaningful results.