Coercion and Peace
In January 2018, PRIF started its work on the research program “Coercion and Peace“. In this context, the institute examined the role that the threat or application of coercion plays in the establishment, maintenance and undermining of peace.
The research program analysed the ambivalent relationship between coercion and peace. On the one hand, coercion can be necessary for establishing and maintaining peace; on the other, it may undermine peace. Generally speaking, coercion is in tension with a peaceful order that is meant to involve more than the absence of war.
In order to address this ambivalence, PRIF investigated whether and in what way different types of coercion that aim at enforcing norms and political order succeed, and how this affects peace at the international and intrastate level. The overall aim of new research program was to analyze how to achieve as much peace as possible with as little coercion as necessary.