Research

We conduct research on global political develo­pments that pose challenges to peace. Peace and conflict research is an inter­disciplinary research field that brings together expertise from the social sciences and humanities to the natural and technical sciences. We deal with pressing questions in five re­search depart­ments as well as seven re­search groups and three re­search alliances.

Research Departments

• International Security intergovern­mental policy-making and security issues
• International Institutions multilateral policy-making and issues of global gover­nance
• Transnational Politics cross-border phenomena as well as non-state actors and conflicts
• Intrastate Conflict orders of violence and peace in states, and issues of political rule
• Glocal Junctions conflicts with a focus on the inter­action of global policy-making and local practice

Research Groups

• Public International Law international law instruments enhancing inter­national peace and security and law of armed conflict
• Radicalization causes and dynamics of radi­calization processes and their effects on societies
• Emerging Technologies effects on conflicts and the international order by technological progress
• Terrorism actions, networks and effects of terrorism and counter-terrorism
• African Intervention Politics inter­ventions by African regional organi­­zations
• Regime Competition the impact of regime competition on global order, foreign policy and domestic politics
• Biological and Chemical Weapons Control Disarmament and non-proliferation, dealing with biological and chemical security risks

Research Alliances

• ConTrust: Trust in Conflict political life under conditions of uncertainty
• Regional Research Center Transformations of Political Violence (TraCe) Transformation of Meaning and New Forms of Warlike and Terrorist Violence
• Cluster for Natural and Technical Science Arms Control Research (CNTR) Arms control with a focus on new technologies and bio- and chemical weapons
• Cooperative research in the Leibniz Association

Research Program

An overarching, multi-year research program allows central theoretical and empirical questions to be syste­matically approached from different pers­pectives:

Since January 2018, PRIF has worked on the research program“Coercion and Peace”. In this context, the institute examines the role that the threat or app­li­cation of coercion plays in the estab­lish­ment, main­te­nance and under­mining of peace.