05/2010
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
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
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.