The IFSH is pleased to be part of a new research and transfer project which brings together experts from various scientific institutions and disciplines. The project, called “Impact Hub: Integrated Efficacy of Integrated Action for Peace”, is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Robert Bosch Foundation. It is initially scheduled to run for two years. In addition to the IFSH, the SCRIPTS Cluster of Excellence at the Free University of Berlin (FU) and the Centre for Peace Mediation (CPM) at the European University Viadrina are involved.
The IFSH project team includes Institute Director Prof Dr Ursula Schröder, Jessica Noll and Dr Anne Lange.
The Impact Hub aims to provide answers to questions that are of crucial importance for current and future peace engagements abroad: How can Germany support conflict countries in (re)building peaceful societies? How can it help them (re)establish functioning state institutions that promote and defend peace? The project team is investigating how the instruments that the German Federal Government, and the Federal Foreign Office in particular, uses to prevent and manage crises and violent conflicts can be better integrated and how these engagements can thus be more successful overall.
Examples of such instruments include security sector reform, e.g. regarding military and police forces and their control bodies (e.g. parliaments), the promotion of democracy and resilience, and peace mediation. The project team is also researching the context and success factors for those instruments to have a positive and sustainable impact – knowledge that makes a decisive contribution to defining realistic goals for German integrated action for peace and to choosing effective means to achieve them. The IFSH researchers are focusing on the aspect of security, their colleagues from the FU on the promotion of democracy and resilience and the Viadrina team on peace mediation. Regionally, they are focusing on Ukraine, the Western Balkans, West Africa and the Middle East.
The research work of the Impact Hub is mainly oriented towards political practice. The project team not only contributes its findings directly to the political process (e.g. in the form of workshops and recommendations for action). From the very beginning, the researchers work together with the Federal Foreign Office to identify current needs, e.g. for analyses, workshops and practical guidance. The project is thus intended to contribute to the learning, adaptive approach that the Federal Government has adopted.
New Research Project on: Making Integrated Action for Peace More Successful
For 20 years, the Bundeswehr was deployed in Afghanistan, where it took part in the Resolute Support mission to train and support the Afghan security forces. (c) dpa Picture Alliance | Michael Kappler