‘Preventing Crises, Resolving Conflicts, Building Peace’ are key challenges for Germany’s and Europe’s evolving international role. Berlin is investing in the field, both financially and conceptually. On this blog, we discuss how to target these investments towards better crisis prevention, conflict management and peacebuilding. Most contributions are in German, but we occasionally ask international experts for their views. This section collects contributions in English. You are warmly invited to join the discussion: Subscribe to our weekly email-updates (in German), share and comment on posts on social media (@PeaceLabBlog, #PeaceLab), read our summary of the preceding “PeaceLab2016” debate or send us an email at peacelab@gppi.net.
Artikel The Promises and Pitfalls of Comprehensive Transitional Justice: The Colombian Case Colombia´s peace process has set in motion one of the world’s most ambitious and holistic transitional justice projects. While the new institutions remain at the core of political controversy, the backing of the international community has proven vital. Germany has the expertise and credibility to assist the process and should pay more attention to capacity building in civil society at local and regional levels. Christian Völkel • 05. Dezember 2018
Artikel Supporting Transitional Justice in Fragile Environments: Lessons from Iraq Post-ISIS The Iraqi case demonstrates the impediments to transitional justice efforts in fragile, post-conflict environments. To support these efforts, Germany should provide technical assistance; seek out reliable, influential government partners; strike a balance between the sometimes divergent outcomes of state-building, democratization and transitional justice processes; and find effective pathways that harness traditional justice mechanisms. Osama Gharizi • 22. November 2018
Artikel The Failure of Top-Down Approaches to Transitional Justice: What Iraqis and Syrians Teach Us Too often, the international community has been oblivious to the immediate needs of victims and communities in Iraq and Syria. Victims’ and civil society’s participation in transitional justice processes is therefore essential to a successful, inclusive, and comprehensive provision of justice. The German government should learn from local actors and empower them to actively participate in transitional justice efforts. Habib Nassar • 13. Dezember 2018
Artikel How to Unify the European Union: The View from Italy The European Union is divided. To overcome this, the EU should redefine its internal positions to be able to represent its interests more coherently in the Security Council. In this regard, Germany’s commitment to the Europeanization of its seat could play a vital role. The German government should form strategic alliances to merge EU stances. Silvia Francescon • 13. Dezember 2018
Artikel People and Politics: Fostering the Art of Conflict Prevention Researchers and practitioners should pay greater attention to the human beings at the center of conflict politics. Gerrit Kurtz, Christoph Meyer • 11. Dezember 2018
Artikel Shaping the Future of Civilian Crisis Management Almost unnoticed by the wider public, the EU has taken a landmark decision to make its civilian crisis management more capable, flexible and responsive. However, important commitments in the “Civilian CSDP Compact” remain vague. As a strong supporter of civilian CSDP, Germany should push for further ambitious steps to be made concrete. Carina Böttcher, Marie Wolf • 28. November 2018
Artikel There Are More Than Victims and Former Combatants In transitional justice contexts, court verdicts often do not enjoy universal acceptance. Thus, Germany should promote the interplay between judicial and non-judicial mechanisms to increase trust in the judgements. Also, the German approach has to overcome the binary of victims and perpetrators and foster the public participation of a much broader spectrum of actors in transitional justice processes. Ljubinka Petrovic-Ziemer • 21. November 2018
Artikel Adopt a Stance, Not Just Mechanisms The rapid success of transitional justice led to blue-printing mechanisms without adequate consideration of context. The German government should think of transitional justice not only as a set of mechanisms, but also as a stance to any activity in any field it supports in transitional societies. Thus, the government should ensure past-sensitivity in all interventions it pursues in post-conflict or post-authoritarian contexts. Alexander Mayer-Rieckh • 15. November 2018
Artikel Choose your partner wisely: regional actors in crisis management Crisis management can only succeed with regional partners: so far, so true – but insufficient. Regional hegemons rarely deliver official German hopes to be “anchors of stability”, and regional organizations are rarely neutral, legitimate and effective at the same time. Still, regional cooperation has great peacekeeping potential if pursued more strategically. Ingo Henneberg • 09. November 2018
Artikel A Europeanized German Security Council Seat: How Berlin’s Actions Can Live Up to Its Words Merkel and Maas announced ambitious goals for “Europeanizing” the German seat on the UN Security Council. To avoid disappointing its closest partners, Berlin needs to find more inclusive ways of leading on both thematic and crisis-specific issues – and possibly sacrifice some of its own priorities. Noémi Blome, Theresa Lütkefend • 01. November 2018
Artikel Plural Justice: A Holistic Approach to Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding Transitional justice processes often are too narrow and technocratic. Restorative and retributive justice alone may not lead to a stable peace, because it does not resolve underlying grievances that led to violent conflict. Therefore, transitional justice should incorporate conflict resolution, civil rights and participation, as well as socioeconomic and redistributive justice to address historical marginalization. Lisa Laplante • 31. Oktober 2018
Artikel It’s the Economic and Social Rights, Stupid! Transitional justice cannot prevent the recurrence of human rights violations if it does not address economic and social rights violations. For Germany’s transitional justice strategy this means: first, do not privilege criminal prosecution; second, provide technical assistance to local actors; third, become a voice for exploring and implementing remedies for economic and social rights violations. Ruben Carranza • 24. Oktober 2018
Artikel Letter from Warsaw: How Germany Can Gain Security Credibility in New York In Polish eyes, Germany lacks credibility when it comes to security matters. In the UN Security Council, Germany could gain such credibility if it steps out of its comfort zone by focusing on selected partners to get things done, taking everyone’s priorities into account, and formulating real strategies. Adam Traczyk • 18. Oktober 2018
Artikel Include Displacement Issues within Transitional Justice Mandates Displacement crises can create fertile ground for future conflict and extremism if they remain unaddressed. Thus, for international donors such as Germany, it is critical to support transitional justice processes that include large-scale displacement and the justice claims of victims within their mandates. Measures can be taken even while violent conflicts are ongoing. Roger Duthie • 16. Oktober 2018
Artikel Elevating Global Health to the UN Security Council Focusing on global health in the Security Council could unite its members and support Germany’s aim to reform its “two-class” structure. To ensure that this goes beyond political maneuvering and has an impact, Germany should increase funding to health systems and broaden the discussion to include other issues such as non-communicable diseases and human rights at the Security Council. Katherine Polin, Roopa Dhatt • 11. Oktober 2018
Artikel Justice for Syria: Lessons from Innovative Tools for Accountability Justice remains elusive in the case of Syria. With the UN Security Council blocked, the hope of securing justice rests with national prosecutors. The IIIM was established to organise the largely uncoordinated documentation effort, necessary to support prosecutors. But for states seeking accountability, two questions loom: what could have been done better? And what more can, and should, they do? Sareta Ashraph • 09. Oktober 2018
Artikel One Process: Tackling the Past and Reckoning With the Future In post-war societies, ex-combatants and victims associations – from all sides of the conflict – enjoy high credibility. Instead of regarding them as potential spoilers of the peacebuilding process, the German government should support cooperation with these groups to bridge the gap between opposing war legacies, search for joint ways to face the violent past, and prevent the recurrence of war. Nenad Vukosavljević • 04. Oktober 2018
Artikel Thinking Big About Transitional Justice With its expertise on SSR, rule of law and development, Germany is in an ideal position to strengthen the transitional justice agenda. For its new strategy, the key will be to enable effective links between these fields and to help articulate an effective prevention framework. Pablo de Greiff • 18. September 2018
Artikel Global Peace Needs an Updated UN Charter The worldwide increase in armed intra-state conflicts will make it necessary to expand the mandate of the UN Charter. Although this would be the first substantive revision of the UN Charter since its adoption almost 75 years ago, this may be less utopian than it seems. In fact, Germany is well placed to take the lead revitalizing the UN as the core collective security instrument for maintaining global peace. Michael von der Schulenburg • 11. September 2018
Artikel Make Security Council Diplomacy Great Again The dynamics of the UN Security Council have drastically changed over the past years, fragmenting the Council, but also empowering influential non-permanent members such as Germany. Berlin should seize this as an opportunity in building on a successful Franco-German cooperation record. However, the Security Council seat is not a tool for European integration but for building and securing peace. Manuel Lafont Rapnouil • 29. August 2018
Artikel Conflict Management: Go Big or Go Home If Germany wants to address current conflicts around the world, half-hearted efforts will not do. After all, effective crisis management requires both civilian and military means. Germany should therefore increase its budget for diplomacy, defence and development assistance to three percent of its gross domestic product and transform the Federal Security Council into a comprehensive coordinating body for foreign and security policy. Wolfgang Ischinger • 31. Juli 2018
