Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Dialogue Series is an offshoot of the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation. Each topic in the series is chosen because it is particularly relevant to societies in conflict and the practice of conflict transformation, and... more
The Dialogue Series is an offshoot of the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation. Each topic in the series is chosen because it is particularly relevant to societies in conflict and the practice of conflict transformation, and because it raises important issues at the present time. In each Dialogue, practitioners and scholars critically engage and debate in light of their experience. Typically, a Dialogue includes one lead article from key experts, and several commentaries from practitioners and others. Rather than presenting a single analysis, these practitioner-scholar encounters stimulate debate, integrating different perspectives, challenging prevailing views and comparing research findings with experiences and insights on the ground. Importantly, Dialogues, as works of broad relevance, are distributed in print version as well as online. We invite readers to respond to the papers (as to all articles). Interesting and original contributions can be added to the web version o...
Dieser Beitrag widmet sich der Frage, welche Rolle die Konflikttransformation fur den Frieden und die Friedensforderung spielt. Die Begriffe Konflikttransformation und Friedensforderung sind keineswegs synonym, wie man vermuten konnte.... more
Dieser Beitrag widmet sich der Frage, welche Rolle die Konflikttransformation fur den Frieden und die Friedensforderung spielt. Die Begriffe Konflikttransformation und Friedensforderung sind keineswegs synonym, wie man vermuten konnte. Stattdessen fokussiert ein transformativer Ansatz unsere Aufmerksamkeit darauf, welchen Stellenwert Konflikte auf der interpersonellen wie internationalen Ebene erhalten mussen, damit aus Krieg Frieden werden kann. Das folgende Zitat, das einem Teilnehmer an einer Dialogveranstaltung aus Sudafrika zugeschrieben wird, bringt dies auf den Punkt: „I thought that conflict was about fighting, now I know it’s a way of crossing the bridge.“
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
What is the policy brief about? This policy brief highlights recommendations to improve programming aiming to prevent violent extremism (PVE), and emphasises the need for all programming to begin work with locally-grounded analysis and... more
What is the policy brief about? This policy brief highlights recommendations to improve programming aiming to prevent violent extremism (PVE), and emphasises the need for all programming to begin work with locally-grounded analysis and planning. It also highlights sets of factors and actors who can contribute to social resilience against violent extremisms. The brief draws mainly on the extensive report Community Perspectives on Preventing Violent Extremism: Lessons Learned from the Western Balkans, which concludes a two-year project spanning research, community dialogue and policy advice in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and North Macedonia.
Research Interests:
This policy brief highlights recommendations to improve programming aiming to prevent violent extremism (PVE), and emphasises the need for all programming to begin work with locally-grounded analysis and planning. It also highlights sets... more
This policy brief highlights recommendations to improve programming aiming to prevent violent extremism (PVE), and emphasises the need for all programming to begin work with locally-grounded analysis and planning. It also highlights sets of factors and actors who can contribute to social resilience against violent extremisms. The brief draws mainly on the extensive report Community Perspectives on Preventing Violent Extremism: Lessons Learned from the Western Balkans, which concludes a two-year project spanning research, community dialogue and policy advice in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and North Macedonia.
Research Interests:
This comparative report presents insights from a collaborative research project combined with community dialogue initiatives carried out in 2017/18 in four Western Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia.... more
This comparative report presents insights from a collaborative research project combined with community dialogue initiatives carried out in 2017/18 in four Western Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia. Arguably, the four countries scrutinised in the study have many similarities rooted in shared historical grievances, but also linked to underperforming economies, bad governance and administrative dysfunctionality, national and ethnic tensions and unresolved identity issues. The research project focused on the meso-level and sought to identify factors of community vulnerability and resilience to violent extremism, and to formulate and test recommendations drawn from peacebuilding for effective prevention of violent extremism (PVE). In order to identify and understand what makes communities resilient to violent extremism, researchers analysed communities’ characteristics in a given socio-economic, ideological and political context. Affected and unaffected communities were the main ‘target’ of the research, which aimed to explore and identify what makes a certain community stand out in its ability (by chance or choice) to prevent or resist the threats of violent extremism, or be influenced by ideological and/or physical forms of violent extremism. It quickly became clear that communities are neither fully affected nor completely unaffected – an unaffected community might still share the same ‘breeding ground’ traits as affected municipalities and an affected community could still display some features of a resilient community.
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This policy brief hones in on the specific ways in which a people-centred approach to dealing with the past can be built from the ground up. It works through the commonalities and differences between transitional justice, reconciliation... more
This policy brief hones in on the specific ways in which a people-centred approach to dealing with the past can be built from the ground up. It works through the commonalities and differences between transitional justice, reconciliation and dealing with the past; and puts emphasis on the dual roles of the victims and their potential in either escalating or de-escalating violent approaches to conflict.
Research Interests:
Dealing with violent extremism (VE) has emerged as a central framework of analysis and policy-making in most Western and non-Western government agencies. It is also heavily shaping the programming of non-governmental agencies, not least... more
Dealing with violent extremism (VE) has emerged as a central framework of analysis and policy-making in most Western and non-Western government agencies. It is also heavily shaping the programming of non-governmental agencies, not least due to the availability of related funding lines.
While there is an undeniable need to address violent extremism, this latest Berghof Handbook Dialogue takes as one premise that more often than not, analysis and programming to date often fall short in understanding and tackling the root causes of the phenomenon. Our lead article proposes: "Ultimately, addressing VE is fundamentally about conflict transformation, yet CVE/PVE interventions are rarely designed to be transformative."
Berghof Handbook Dialogue No. 13 thus looks more deeply at what it takes to formulate transformative approaches to violent extremism. The lead article by Mohammed Abu-Nimer puts a call for interreligious peacebuilding centre-stage, which takes seriously and truly integrates the perspective of actors otherwise often defined as part of the problem. Respondents from a variety of backgrounds will, over the months to come, discuss these propositions. They will shed light on systemic contexts, the role of identity and gender, practice-oriented work with youth and regional contexts such as the Western Balkans and the MENA region.
We gratefully acknowledge funding for this issue of our dialogue series by the German Foreign Office, in the context of their support for our project Preventing Violent Extremism in the Western Balkans.
While there is an undeniable need to address violent extremism, this latest Berghof Handbook Dialogue takes as one premise that more often than not, analysis and programming to date often fall short in understanding and tackling the root causes of the phenomenon. Our lead article proposes: "Ultimately, addressing VE is fundamentally about conflict transformation, yet CVE/PVE interventions are rarely designed to be transformative."
Berghof Handbook Dialogue No. 13 thus looks more deeply at what it takes to formulate transformative approaches to violent extremism. The lead article by Mohammed Abu-Nimer puts a call for interreligious peacebuilding centre-stage, which takes seriously and truly integrates the perspective of actors otherwise often defined as part of the problem. Respondents from a variety of backgrounds will, over the months to come, discuss these propositions. They will shed light on systemic contexts, the role of identity and gender, practice-oriented work with youth and regional contexts such as the Western Balkans and the MENA region.
We gratefully acknowledge funding for this issue of our dialogue series by the German Foreign Office, in the context of their support for our project Preventing Violent Extremism in the Western Balkans.
Research Interests:
In some countries, more civilians are being killed by armed gangs and criminal organisations than in traditional combat. Still, these pockets of armed social violence – "undeclared wars" marked, among other things, by criminal, gang... more
In some countries, more civilians are being killed by armed gangs and criminal organisations than in traditional combat. Still, these pockets of armed social violence – "undeclared wars" marked, among other things, by criminal, gang and/or urban violence as well as extremist violence – have long received much less attention than politically motivated forms of armed conflicts. As their effects — social-political destabilisation, in some cases coinciding with high numbers of victims — are becoming more pressing, national and international actors have begun addressing the phenomenon.
In this 12th Berghof Handbook Dialogue, the authors of the lead article, Bernardo Arévalo de León and Ana Glenda Tager, argue that the inclusive and participatory methodologies offered by peacebuilding provide an operational strategy that would allow the international community to engage successfully with issues of armed social violence.Five sets of respondents explore the actors, factors and dynamics of violence in different settings (among them Colombia, the UK, Nigeria, Mexico, Myanmar and Guinea-Bissau). They debate issues as diverse as the inter-connectedness of political, social and private violence, the need to work closely with government agencies, civil society and agents of violence, as well as the merits of specific participatory methodologies. They discuss what peacebuilding and other initiatives have achieved, and where they have fallen short. The Dialoge is rounded out by an introduction by the editors and a "response to the respondents by the lead authors".
The Dialogue Series is an offshoot of the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation. Each topic in the series is chosen because it is particularly relevant to societies in conflict and the practice of conflict transformation, and because it raises important issues at the present time. In each Dialogue, practitioners and scholars critically engage and debate in light of their experience. Typically, a Dialogue includes one lead article from key experts, and several commentaries from practitioners and others. Rather than presenting a single analysis, these practitioner-scholar encounters stimulate debate, integrating different perspectives, challenging prevailing views and comparing research findings with experiences and insights on the ground.
Importantly, Dialogues, as works of broad relevance, are distributed in print version (to order a hardcopy, visit http://www.berghof-foundation.org/shop/) as well as online. We invite readers to respond to the papers (as to all articles). Interesting and original contributions can be added to the web version of the Dialogue. Please contact us at handbook@berghof-foundation.org.
In this 12th Berghof Handbook Dialogue, the authors of the lead article, Bernardo Arévalo de León and Ana Glenda Tager, argue that the inclusive and participatory methodologies offered by peacebuilding provide an operational strategy that would allow the international community to engage successfully with issues of armed social violence.Five sets of respondents explore the actors, factors and dynamics of violence in different settings (among them Colombia, the UK, Nigeria, Mexico, Myanmar and Guinea-Bissau). They debate issues as diverse as the inter-connectedness of political, social and private violence, the need to work closely with government agencies, civil society and agents of violence, as well as the merits of specific participatory methodologies. They discuss what peacebuilding and other initiatives have achieved, and where they have fallen short. The Dialoge is rounded out by an introduction by the editors and a "response to the respondents by the lead authors".
The Dialogue Series is an offshoot of the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation. Each topic in the series is chosen because it is particularly relevant to societies in conflict and the practice of conflict transformation, and because it raises important issues at the present time. In each Dialogue, practitioners and scholars critically engage and debate in light of their experience. Typically, a Dialogue includes one lead article from key experts, and several commentaries from practitioners and others. Rather than presenting a single analysis, these practitioner-scholar encounters stimulate debate, integrating different perspectives, challenging prevailing views and comparing research findings with experiences and insights on the ground.
Importantly, Dialogues, as works of broad relevance, are distributed in print version (to order a hardcopy, visit http://www.berghof-foundation.org/shop/) as well as online. We invite readers to respond to the papers (as to all articles). Interesting and original contributions can be added to the web version of the Dialogue. Please contact us at handbook@berghof-foundation.org.
Research Interests:
This Dialogue issue revolves around the question of how individuals and collectives can come to terms with war memories or trauma after mass atrocities. How do the processes on different levels (individual and collective) and diverse... more
This Dialogue issue revolves around the question of how individuals and collectives can come to terms with war memories or trauma after mass atrocities. How do the processes on different levels (individual and collective) and diverse dimensions of identity formation relate to each other? How to deal with trans-generational legacies of violence? How can the needs of the victims be served in an appropriate way, and how to address “cultures of victimhood” that stem from past violence?
These questions are discussed by scholars and practitioners, peace activists, psychologists and social scientists in Berghof Handbook Dialogue 11 (ed. by Beatrix Austin & Martina Fischer).
The Dialogue Series is an offshoot of the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation. Each topic in the series is chosen because it is particularly relevant to societies in conflict and the practice of conflict transformation, and because it raises important issues at the present time. In each Dialogue, practitioners and scholars critically engage and debate in light of their experience. Typically, a Dialogue includes one lead article from key experts, and several commentaries from practitioners and others. Rather than presenting a single analysis, these practitioner-scholar encounters stimulate debate, integrating different perspectives, challenging prevailing views and comparing research findings with experiences and insights on the ground.
Importantly, Dialogues, as works of broad relevance, are distributed in print version (to order a hardcopy, visit http://www.berghof-foundation.org/shop/) as well as online. We invite readers to respond to the papers (as to all articles). Interesting and original contributions can be added to the web version of the Dialogue. Please contact us at handbook@berghof-foundation.org.
These questions are discussed by scholars and practitioners, peace activists, psychologists and social scientists in Berghof Handbook Dialogue 11 (ed. by Beatrix Austin & Martina Fischer).
The Dialogue Series is an offshoot of the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation. Each topic in the series is chosen because it is particularly relevant to societies in conflict and the practice of conflict transformation, and because it raises important issues at the present time. In each Dialogue, practitioners and scholars critically engage and debate in light of their experience. Typically, a Dialogue includes one lead article from key experts, and several commentaries from practitioners and others. Rather than presenting a single analysis, these practitioner-scholar encounters stimulate debate, integrating different perspectives, challenging prevailing views and comparing research findings with experiences and insights on the ground.
Importantly, Dialogues, as works of broad relevance, are distributed in print version (to order a hardcopy, visit http://www.berghof-foundation.org/shop/) as well as online. We invite readers to respond to the papers (as to all articles). Interesting and original contributions can be added to the web version of the Dialogue. Please contact us at handbook@berghof-foundation.org.