Pivoting to Prevention: How the Biden Administration Can Accelerate Implementation of the Atrocity Prevention Agenda

Publisher: Just Security

Publication date: September 26, 2023

The Biden administration recently submitted and formally launched its annual report to Congress on U.S. efforts to anticipate, prevent, and respond to atrocities, as required by the landmark Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act (the Elie Wiesel Act). While the report asserts that atrocity prevention is a “core national security interest,” the United States must take bolder action to elevate and integrate these concerns as strategic priorities if it is to realize the promise of “never again.”

Today, violent conflict around the world is at an all-time high, affecting over two billion people. Twenty countries experiencing or at-risk of experiencing atrocities, from Ukraine to Myanmar. And in Sudan, twenty years after the genocide that galvanized the world, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and large-scale ethnic-based violence potentially amounting to genocide are occurring in Darfur once again.

The Biden administration, however, has not dedicated the atrocity prevention agenda sufficient attention or much needed financial support. The most recent National Security Strategy (2022) only mentions atrocities once, and the Fiscal Year 2024 Presidential Budget Request omitted any provisions for atrocity prevention funding. While Congress equipped the executive branch with innovative tools through a prevention-oriented canon of law – embodied in the Elie Wiesel Act, the Global Fragility Act (GFA), and the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Act – a lack of prioritization, political buy-in, and resources from the highest levels continues to hamper its implementation, undermining the administration’s stated commitment to atrocity prevention as a “core national security interest.”

Read the full Just Security article here.