WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Council on International Law, Order, and Security (CILOS) and the Arab Leadership Institute (ALI) have entered into a partnership on the challenges that follow conflict and prolonged political instability.

A political settlement can end a conflict, but an agreement does not by itself produce the institutions required to carry it out. States emerging from conflict have to rebuild public administration, restore their capacity to govern, and recover public trust, often while implementing the terms of a settlement under severe constraints. The partnership will focus on that period, and on what it takes to move from a signed agreement to working government.

The work will draw principally on experience from across the Arab world, alongside relevant cases elsewhere, and will concentrate on three questions: how public institutions are rebuilt after severe disruption, what institutional capacity a settlement requires in order to hold, and what these transitions demand of the officials responsible for leading them.

The partnership pairs research with direct engagement. The two institutions will convene current and former public officials, practitioners, and specialists for closed-door discussions, and will draw from them practical guidance for governments, international organizations, and others supporting political transitions.

"A political settlement is often treated as the end of a conflict, when in many cases it begins the harder stage," said Omer Niazi, Founder and President of CILOS. "An agreement can create the political basis for peace, but institutions have to make it work. This partnership is about that gap, and what states and their international partners can do to close it."

"Political agreements are only as durable as the institutions asked to implement them," said Khaled Emam, Chief Executive Officer of the Arab Leadership Institute and a senior fellow at the Council. "Our work across the Arab world has shown how much depends on the leadership of those institutions in the first years after a settlement. We look forward to setting out those lessons alongside the Council."

The partnership brings together the Council's work on international law, conflict resolution, governance, and international order with the Institute's work on public leadership and institutional capacity across the Arab world.

The partnership establishes a standing framework for joint work. The Council and ALI will announce specific research and convenings as the programme develops.

About the Council on International Law, Order, and Security

The Council on International Law, Order, and Security (CILOS) is an independent, nonpartisan policy research institution based in Washington, D.C., with operations in New York. The Council works at the intersection of international law, international order, and international security to address consequential challenges facing states and the international system.

About the Arab Leadership Institute

The Arab Leadership Institute (ALI) works to develop public leadership and strengthen institutions across the Arab world. Its work focuses on developing leaders, building institutional capacity, and producing knowledge grounded in the experience and needs of the region.

Disclosure

Khaled Emam, Chief Executive Officer of the Arab Leadership Institute, serves as a senior fellow at the Council on International Law, Order, and Security. The Council discloses this affiliation in connection with the partnership announced above.