07/2010 – Miscellaneous
On July 1, 2010 the chairman of the World Economic Forum, Prof. Klaus Schwab, informed BCR’s Prof. Gießmann of his appointment to the forum’s new Global Agenda Council (GAC) on Terrorism. The GACs comprise 15 to 20 members from all over the world and serve as an informal advisory board to the World Economic Forum and, through the forum, to the international community. As mentioned in their mission statement, the councils represent “the world’s foremost integrated ‘intelligence’ network of innovative thinking and idea exchange on global issues”. This is Prof. Gießmann’s second term to serve as a GAC member.
07/2010 – New Publications
Handbook Dialogue No 9 – Human Rights and Conflict Transformation. The Challenges of Just Peace – can now be ordered in hard copy for 7,50 € (+postage) via email at the Berghof Center.
06/2010 –
On June 18-19, 2010 Berghof Conflict Research hosted an expert workshop generously supported by the Gerda Henkel Foundation on the topic “’Subsidiarity’ in Peacebuilding in Afghanistan”. Numerous researchers, practitioners and other experts on Afghanistan were welcomed to the institute for the 2-day workshop, in order to participate in a brainstorming session on how to use local capacities more effectively for the peacebuilding and statebuilding processes in Afghanistan. The workshop was presided over by Prof. Dr. Hans J. Giessmann, Director of Berghof Conflict Research. Also in attendance were Johannes Zundel, CEO of the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies, and Dr. Michael Hanssler, CEO of the Gerda Henkel Foundation.
The main discussion themes of the workshop were local governance; security and policing; potential for conflict transformation within religion, culture and gender; and civil society involvement and the interaction of state and non-state actors on the local level. Furthermore, the workshop was an excellent opportunity for an exchange of knowledge and practical experience among the participants as well as a welcome chance to discuss future potential collaboration.
06/2010 – Miscellaneous
The first public hearing of the newly-established Sub-Committee “Civil Crisis Prevention and Cross-Linked Security” of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) was held on June 14, 2010 in Berlin. The new Sub-Committee had been invited to this hearing in order to become informed about the challenges and current tasks of civil crisis prevention. BCR Director Dr. Hans J. Gießmann was one of the six invited experts who testified.
06/2010 – New Publications
We are very pleased to announce the release of Berghof Handbook Dialogue No 9: “Human Rights and Conflict Transformation: The Challenges of Just Peace”. Berghof Handbook Dialogues aim to address topics of particular relevance for societies in conflict and the practice of conflict transformation. In each Dialogue, practitioners and scholars debate and critically engage in light of their experience. At the centre of the latest Dialogue is the relationship between human rights protection and conflict transformation, which seems straightforward, but is not an easy one. Over and over again, the question has been asked whether the two share a common agenda or actually pursue competing goals. Contributors to this Dialogue aim to go beyond the divide and polarising language of “peace versus justice” in order to gain a clearer understanding of the potential – and limits – of bringing together human rights and conflict transformation in specific contexts. Drawing evidence from contexts such as Nepal, South Africa, Israel/Palestine, Uganda and Colombia, they argue that a more thorough emphasis on human rights – as causes and manifestation of conflicts, but also as normative and practical intervention tools – contributes to bringing conflict transformation closer to its aim of tackling conflicts at their deepest roots. The lead author and her respondents engage in a rich dialogue on areas of tensions as well as complementarity between the two sets of practices: they encourage mutual learning and joint work, and stress the importance of locally-designed, timely and context-specific initiatives, as well as of hard-nosed analysis of the political context and use of human rights and conflict transformation discourses.
05/2010 – New Publications
The Basque Country – the Long Walk to a Democratic Scenario.
The Transition Series compiles case studies produced by participants in the Berghof programme “Resistance/Liberation Movements in Transition”. The aim of these publications is to learn from the experience of movements around the world who have used political violence in their struggle but have also engaged in negotiation processes and democratic politics, in order to better understand their dynamics and role in waging conflicts and making peace. The authors have been consciously asked to reflect on the experience of these movements from their own unique point of view. What we publish in this series is not presented as neutral or exclusively accurate commentary; we are conscious that there is no single truth in conflict transformation, and we believe that these case studies reflect important voices which are usually excluded or devalued in the analysis of conflict.
This study “The Basque Country – the Long Walk to a Democratic Scenario“ was written by Urko Aiartza, a Basque human rights lawyer, and Dr Julien Zabalo, Professor at the University of the Basque Country, in close consultation with leading representatives of the pro-independence movement. It analyses the evolution of the conflict between the Spanish state and the Basque Country, from the creation of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) in 1958 to the present, with a strong emphasis on the various attempts to search for a solution to the conflict through dialogue and negotiation.
We hope that you will enjoy reading it and welcome your feedback. Two further issues of this Series will be published in the coming few months. You can also consult past issues on our website: http://www.berghof-conflictresearch.org/en/publications/transitions-series/.
A printed version of the study can be also ordered by following this link (5.00 € + postage).
05/2010 – Events
On May 6, 2010 Berghof Conflict Research welcomed to the institute Mr. Mohammad Gulab Mangal, Governor of Helmand Province in Afghanistan, and Ms. Nasima Neyazi, a Member of the Afghan Parliament, as well as Mr. Najib Roshan and other colleagues of the Aachen Institute for Afghan Studies. The discussion with the delegation was attended by Prof. Dr. Hans J. Giessmann, Director of Berghof Conflict Research, and Johannes Zundel, CEO of the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies, as well as other colleagues of Berghof Conflict Research and Berghof Peace Support.
The main focus of the discussion was on peacebuilding activities for youth, public education programs and the current development situation in Afghanistan, which has recently undergone many positive developments and can be regarded as improving, despite the critical security situation. The discussion also addressed the effects and limitations of the new military strategy in the province and the importance of involving the Afghan population in the peacebuilding process. Military operations should not be allowed to have priority over civilian peacebuilding. In a concluding bilateral conversation, concrete options for collaborative research and peace support project work between BCR and Afghan partners were discussed.
05/2010 – Miscellaneous
The Director of Berghof Conflict Research, Prof. Hans J. Giessmann, was one of two selected resource persons for the first Security Briefing webinar meeting in the “Security – Balancing Travel Efficiency with Security Needs” series, organized by the World Economic Forum, which took place on May 5th, 2010. Together with the EU representative to the US Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP), Jean-Louis Bruguiére, he informed leading representatives from global companies about recent trends in terrorist activities and challenges for curbing risks and threats. Prof. Giessmann became a member of the Forum’s Council on Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction in 2009.
05/2010 – Events
In collaboration with the Colombian organisations Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular (CINEP) and Observatorio para la Paz, Berghof Conflict Research organised a conference on April 29 – May 1 2010 in Bogota, Colombia. It brought together local researchers and “insider experts” (former peace negotiators or commanders representing resistance/liberation movements) from El Salvador, South Africa, (South) Sudan, Burundi, (Northern) Ireland, Kosovo, Aceh, and Colombia, in order to discuss an innovative approach to post-war peacebuilding, provisionally labelled “security transition processes”. This workshop represented the first major event in the project “From War to Politics: Non-State Armed Groups and Security Transition Processes” (2009-2011).
Participants discussed various lessons learnt from their own research and practical experience on the linkages between security sector reform and political, socio-economic and judicial transformations, as well as the various reconversion paths and peacebuilding roles of former combatants in the aftermath of violent conflicts.
The conference was sponsored by a grant from the International Development and Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada.
04/2010 –
Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies funds qualified individuals, organisations and institutions doing cutting-edge research and reflective practice in conflict studies.
The three thematic interests below permit us to take a more concentrated approach to what we see as key strategic issues emerging in the field of conflict transformation. By focusing on these areas, we wish to support action research and reflective practice that identifies and elaborates fresh, creative paradigms for inclusive and integrated approaches that can enhance this field.
These three themes are integral to structural peacebuilding processes, particularly the continued need to extend and develop multi-track approaches to conflict transformation. All are inter-related and mutually reinforcing, thus lending greater coherence to our philanthropic interests.
1. Peacebuilding and reconciliation in post-war societies
2. Transformation processes of non-state armed groups into political actors
3. Interactions between state and non-state actors in conflict transformation processes
For more information about these thematic interests and the application procedures for a grant, please visit the Berghof Foundation’s website.
04/2010 – Events
Together with our sister organization, Berghof Peace Support (BPS), Berghof Conflict Research facilitated a Brainstorming Workshop on “indigenous” and “traditional” methods of conflict transformation in Southeast Asia. The workshop was held on April 19, 2010 in the premises of BCR in Berlin. It brought together a small group of distinguished scholars and practitioners in order to discuss the applicability of selected “indigenous” and “traditional” methods to the transformation of identity-based/self-determination type conflicts. Southeast Asia served as the primary empirical reference for this undertaking. As a starting point, BCR Senior Visiting Fellow Dr Kamarulzaman Askandar gave a presentation, which provided an overview on current conflicts and indigenous and traditional methods of conflict management as implemented in the region. In the following discussion the participants reflected on critical aspects of terminology, concepts, and research methodology. Key questions for further research were identified and articulated. An advisory board for working on the Framework Concept was established, with Dr Kamrulzaman Askandar (USM, Malaysia), Dr Alexander Horstmann (MPI, Göttingen), Ms. Antje Missbach (Free University), Dr Peter Kreuzer (HSFK, Frankfurt) as external members. The Workshop was sponsored by a grant from the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies.
03/2010 – New Publications
A German translation of the textbook “Learning each other’s historical narrative“ of the Peace Research Institute in the Middle-East (PRIME) has been published by Berghof Conflict Research and PRIME (German translation).
For more information on Dan Bar-On’s work you may read the obituary on Dan Bar-On or our report on a Workshop with Dan Bar-On at the Berghof Center.
03/2010 – New Projects
Funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research, this new project looks at the interaction of International and Local Initiatives for Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia.
details
02/2010 – New Projects
The “Gerda Henkel Foundation” has awarded a grant to BCR for an Expert Workshop on “Subsidiarity in Peacebuilding”. The rationale of this workshop is to discuss options for bottom-up peacebuilding in societies in transition with particular emphasis on Afghanistan. By bringing together a group of top experts on local governance and conflict transformation, this workshop will elaborate on how local governance can contribute to bringing about culturally-tailored, sustained peace structures in societal communities.
details
02/2010 – Miscellaneous
We have a new website, launched on 3 February 2010. Several new features have been added, with updates on our work in German and English. We have also re-launched the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation website in a new design format.
01/2010 – Miscellaneous
Timed to fit in with the re-launch of our website, we are introducing our new, more compact name of “Berghof Conflict Research” (BCR). Together with our sister organisation – now “Berghof Peace Support” (BPS) – we will continue working under the Berghof umbrella to combine practical peacebuilding with innovative conflict research.
01/2010 – Vacancies
Regrettably there are no job openings available at BCR as of now.
For internship opportunities at BCR please contact
Ulrike Petri.
01/2010 – New Publications
Mediating Identity Conflicts – Potential and Challenges of Engaging with Hamas, a new issue in the Berghof Occasional Paper series by Carolin Goerzig is now available online.
This paper offers some astute insights into the dynamics of one of the most protracted conflicts of the past century, namely the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from the specific perspective of its most controversial party, whose voice is very often excluded or demonised: that of the Hamas movement. Through her so-called “scenario interviews” with several Hamas members in Syria, the author convincingly demonstrates that identity-based conflicts cannot be transformed without the direct participation of their key stakeholders, and that lending such actors a voice with which they can express their grievances, but also their hopes and visions for a constructive path to “just peace”, might generate creative peacemaking options – in this case, opportunities for a mediated settlement.
Hard copies can also be ordered (5.00€ + postage).
10/2009 – New Publications
Helena Rill and Ivana Franovic (eds.): „I cannot feel good if my neighbor does not“. Beograd: Centar za nenasilnu akciju, 2009.
“I cannot feel well if my neighbour does not” is a collection of interviews with people from the region of the former Yugoslavia, discussing how they relate to the wartime past, issues of blame and reconciliation, and their hopes for a peaceful future.
Click here to order via email