Violent conflicts are complex. Building lasting peace is too: How can Germany support other countries in rebuilding peaceful societies? How can it help them re-establish state institutions that promote and defend peace? The research and transfer project Impact Hub: Integrated Efficacy of Integrated Action for Peace addresses these questions. The project team analyses how the sectoral instruments used by the German Federal Government and especially the Federal Foreign Office to prevent and manage crises and violent conflicts can be better integrated and how these engagements can thus be more successful overall.
Instruments for integrated action for peace include security sector reform (e.g. regarding military and police forces as well as their control bodies such as parliaments), promoting democracy and resilience, and peace mediation. The project team also researches 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 regional focus of the research and transfer project is 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 policy recommendations). From the outset, the project team works together with the Federal Foreign Office to identify current needs, e.g. for analyses, workshop and practical guidance. With this the project is intended contribute to the learning, adaptive approach that the Federal Government has adopted. The Impact Hub is a joint project that brings together experts from different disciplines. The network includes:
• The Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH) for the topic of security;
• The Cluster of Excellence SCRIPTS/the Free University of Berlin for the topic of democracy promotion and resilience;
• The Center for Peace Mediation at the European University Viadrina for the topic of peace mediation.
The IFSH also cooperates with the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC).
The Impact Hub will initially run for two years (November 2024 – November 2026). It is funded by the Federal Foreign Office and the Robert Bosch Foundation.