In 2021, the Institute celebrates...


...its 50th anniversary. We would like to use the year to look back on the eventful history of the IFSH and at the same time take a look at current challenges and developments. What are the central security policy debates today and how can our work contribute to peaceful coexistence? In short: what constitutes peace research today?
Established as a foundation on 11 June 1971 in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the Institute can look back on many years of dealing with questions of peace and security. From the very beginning, the Institute's work has focussed on the interplay between research and the concrete handling of current security policy challenges.

Peace and security research

Our research provides orientation in a time of profound upheaval and crisis. For the IFSH’s focal topics are directed towards the central societal challenges of our time, be it the question of why we are experiencing increasing societal polarisation and why societal cohesion is increasingly being called into question, or what security risks technological change brings with it and why we may experience a new global arms race in the future; or what the consequences of climate change are for security and peace; or how international organisations can secure peace worldwide and, above all, whether the European peace project can still have a future – and what that future will be.

Independent research is more indispensable than ever

Especially today, analyses and evaluations by independent scientists and scholars are indispensable in informing political and social debates. For we are facing complex challenges in all these fields. Our researchers contribute to addressing these challenges in the interest of a security policy that is consistently compatible with peace. Since the IFSH’s founding, the focus of our research has been on a comprehensive approach to security policy issues.

Prof. Dr. Ursula Schröder

Prof. Dr. Ursula Schröder

Director of the IFSH

 


Congratulations from First Mayor of Hamburg


    50 years at a glance

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    Watch online: Armed Forces for Peace: The Past, Present and Future of Innere Führung

    An event with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, co-hosted by the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation and the IFSH

     

     

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"From the right of the strongest to the strength of the law": IFSH quotes with ...
Dr Margret Johannsen
Why Did the Hoped-for Peace Dividend Not Materialise in the 1990s?
Professor Dr Michael Brzoska
Watch online: Armed Forces for Peace: The Past, Present and Future of Innere Führung
An event with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, ...
[Translate to English:]
Committed to Peace – In Commemoration of Wolf Graf von Baudissin
Professor (apl.) Dr Dagmar Bussiek
Is Peace the Absence of War?
Prof Dr Michael Brzoska
From the “War on terror” to Societal Peace
Dr Hendrik Hegemann, PD Dr Martin Kahl
Hamburg and the OSCE
Dr Frank Evers und Dr Cornelius Friesendorf
Playing Football at the "Führungsakademie"
Dr Margret Johannsen
38 years of contemporary history in the mirror of the magazine S+F
Dr Patricia Schneider
Update Available - Societal Actors Advancing Peace and Security in Cyberspace
Dr. Mischa Hansel, Dr. Jantje Silomon
The IFSH Celebrates 50 Years - Senate Reception at Hamburg City Hall (Video)
Impressions from the celebration on 11 June 2021
The Global Interregnum and NATO Research During Changing Times
Dr. Cornelia Baciu
Fruits of the Policy of Détente: How the IFSH got academic exchange with Eastern Europe ...
Dr. Anna Kreikemeyer
[Translate to English:] Der Generalsekretär der KPdSU Breschnew und Bundeskanzler Brandt unterzeichnen 1973 das Abkommen über wirtschaftliche, industrielle u. technische Zusammenarbeit. (c) dpa picture-alliance
Knowledge Transfer “Made in Hamburg”
Dr. Ulrich Kühn
Baudissin's Legacy, Peace Research and the Bundeswehr
Prof. Frank Reininghaus
Mikhail Gorbachev at the IFSH
Dr. Margret Johannsen
[Translate to English:]
50 Years of Peace Research in Hamburg — The IFSH Celebrates Its Anniversary
History does (sometimes) repeat itself
Prof. Dr. Michael Brzoska
Birthday wishes from all over the world from our former PhD students
How We Became What We Are: 50 Years of the IFSH
A brief outline of the Institute's history
Our MPS Programme: A Success Story
Dr. Patricia Schneider

Anniversary Events

25 November 2021: „Knowledge for a complex world? Rethinking the roles of peace research and peace education“ 

Virtual Panel Discussion

3.00 - 4.15 pm (CET)

more info

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11 June: reception on 50th Anniversary

"50 Years Peace Research in Hamburg" - Anniversary reception at the Hamburg City Hall

watch video recording (in German)

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50 Years of Peace Research in Hamburg – Impressions from the Celebration

The grand ballroom of the Hamburg City Hall normally hosts guests from both home and abroad, or is laid out for the Feast of Saint Matthias, the world’s oldest feast. But it was there that the red carpet was rolled out for the IFSH on 11 June 2021. Hamburg’s Second Mayor and Senator of Science, Katharina Fegebank, hosted a Senate reception on the occasion of the Institute’s 50th anniversary. Our camera captured the event’s most special moments.


Historical Photo Gallery