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.