BICC-Annual Report 2018 \ Peace and conflict research for sustainability
In its Annual Report 2018, the international peace and conflict research Institute BICC (Bonn International Center for Conversion) analyzes the question of how peace and sustainability can be interlinked, and which challenges arise from this. The Report not only connects research projects on forced displacement with this question. Example, such as from research and advisory services in areas of conflict, such as northern Iraq, Afghanistan, the Sahel, West Africa and the Horn of Africa illustrate that disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of violent actors are an integral part of the sustainability debate.
“Peace and conflict research is sustainability research", Conrad Schetter, Director for Research at BICC stresses in his Essay “17 goals for a sustainable future”. In its chapter “Order and Change”, the Annual Report describes projects that show how social integration of refugees in different contexts can sustainably succeed. The newly established Collaborative Research Center (SFB) “Future Rural Africa” of the Universities of Bonn and Cologne in which BICC is participating with a part of a project is also presented in an article.
The Annual Report 2018 also provides some insights into other research clusters at BICC. The chapter “Dynamics of violent conflict”, for instance, contains articles on the role of Salafist religious seminars (madrassas) in the context of the conflict in Afghanistan as well as on networks of violent Kurdish actors in the Middle East. The insights gained here are based on intensive research in the field in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the chapter “Armament and arms control”, the Annual Report shows the regional approach with which BICC is aiming at improving small arms control in West Africa, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.
BICC pursues the question of how global change affects societies—does it aggravate conflict and to what degree? Does it facilitate a more peaceful coexistence? “Based on its international experience, BICC provides research and advisory services, also for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which are exemplary for the scientific study of such global contexts”, Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, Minister for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia commends the work of BICC in her Foreword to the Annual Report 2018.
Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
heinke@bicc.de
Weitere Informationen:
www.bicc.de/publications/publicationpage/publication/annual-report-2018-830/