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 six 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
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
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.