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Peace Report
The Peace Report - Germany's independent
yearbook on peace and security - has been published
since 1987 as a joint effort of the IFSH and two other
peace research institutes, the Peace Research Institute
Frankfurt (PRIF) and the Protestant Institute for Interdisciplinary
Research (FEST) in Heidelberg. In 2002, the group of
editors was expanded to include the Bonn International
Centre for Conversion and The Institute for Development
and Peace (INEF) in Duisburg.
The Peace Report closely observes and analyses the development
of international conflicts and peace-threatening developments
are continually observed and analysed. Every Peace Report
contains approximately 25 case studies and problem analyses
by the participating research institutes. If required,
guest writers are asked to make contributions. The advisory
opinion report of the publishers on "The present situation"
draws conclusions, points out results and addresses
concrete recommendations to the peace and security policy-making
communities in Germany and Europe.
The most effective strategy against war is to avoid
its development. Causal crisis prevention and conflict
transformation that address the roots of violence are
the core tasks of peace research. The foremost causes
of war in today's society are economic underdevelopment,
ecological destruction and national and social disintegration
processes, which lead to nationalism, fundamentalism,
militarism, and terrorism. The Peace Report regularly
addresses these and other topics, such as international
law, human rights, sustainable development, arms control
and disarmament.
Attempts to prevent war and resolve conflict by political
and civil means often do not lead to the desired results.
The Peace Report also focuses on situations where the
prevention of violence has failed and the use of force
again has the upper hand. In the past, the analyses
of armed conflicts and regional conflicts have mainly
concentrated on Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East,
the Caucasus and the Balkans. Given the frequent failure
of conflict prevention efforts, the Peace Report analyses
the structural prerequisites and conditions for an efficient
and effective international - and particularly European
- peace and security system. The Peace Report uses non
technical language to ensure that it reaches not only
experts but also members of the public who are interested
in specific topics. The Peace Report seeks to go beyond
the assessment of political developments by explaining
the conditions and the causal relations between international
and intra-state conflicts, pointing out different approaches
to problem solving and encouraging independent decision-making.
Abstracts of each contributions, a detailed chronology
of important events and an index of abbreviations complete
the yearbook and make it a useful contemporary reference
work.
The Peace Report is presented to the Federal Press Conference
in Berlin each year in the first half of June. For a
number a years, the book's public profile has been strengthened
by the editors' discourse on their findings with the
political Berlin, e.g. on the occasion of a debate on
matters of topical interest of
the German Bundestag in 2002, in the Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development since 2003, with the President
and Vice-Presidents of the Bundestag in 2003 and 2004
as well as in the Defence Committee, the Committee on
Economic Cooperation and Development and the Committee
on Foreign Affairs. The Peace Report is published by
LIT Verlag, Münster, as a hardback of approximately
300 pages. It is available in bookshops at the price
of €12,90.
Margret Johannsen coordinates the IFSH's work on the
Peace Report. |
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