Contexts

Ukraine – Russia

The Center for Peace Mediation has been active in the Ukraine-Russia context since 2014. Since then, it has been in close contact with Ukrainian academics and political, practical and academic actors from various countries involved in the conflict.

The CPM's research and support activities in this context focus on current methodological dilemmas. From 2014 to 2022, they investigated into methodological challenges of intra-societal dialogue in Ukraine. After Russia´s full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it shifted to improving and preparing dialogue and negotiation approaches for the logic of an asymmetric war.

The spectrum of activities ranges from research and method development to media contributions to method support for Ukrainian dialogue actors and consultancy of experts active in Ukraine (e.g. under the auspices of the Swiss FDFA the OSCE).

The research work is directly embedded in the methodological support of political and practical partners. Problem descriptions, hypotheses, questions, analysis results and recommendations for action are developed in close exchange with those partners.

Key partners are the Mediation and Dialogue Research Center of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy, the Ukrainian Community of Dialogue Practitioners, the Center for Security Studies ETH Zurich, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland (FDFA), CSSP and the German Federal Foreign Office.

Overview of activities

Research and transfer projects

Since 2018: Tough Choices: Dilemmas and Decisions in Peacemaking
Since 2016: Track III Dialogues: Challenges and Trends in Ukraine
2014-2015: The Common House - Supporting and Broadening Dialogue Processes in Odesa

Other activities

European Union

The Center for Peace Mediation addresses questions and conflicts related to the processes of EU enlargement in various activities. Together with the Training for International Diplomats of the German Federal Foreign Office, for example, the CPM offers workshops for diplomats from candidate countries to analyse conflicting interests surrounding EU enlargement and accession negotiations. This includes also discussing the progress reports and exploring how the war in Ukraine initiated by Russia is affecting negotiations with both Ukraine and the Western Balkan states.

The EU in its capacity as a mediating body is another focus of the CPM in this context. In the years between 2011 and 2013, the CPM supported the EU in professionalizing its capacities in the field of peace mediation, taking also the specific methodological and structural challenges of mediation offered and supported by the EU into account.

Overview of activities

  • 2024: Presentation and discussion "Conflict Management/EU Enlargement" AT the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Montenegro
  • 2024: Face-to-face workshop "Dialogue & Crisis Diplomacy/EU Enlargement" in cooperation with the Training for International Diplomats of the Federal Foreign Office
  • 2024: Digital workshop "Interest-Profiling & Dilemma Management/EU Enlargement" in cooperation with the Training for International Diplomats of the Federal Foreign Office
  • 2017: Contribution to the Viadrina Summer School "Ambivalences of Conflict Resolution. The EU's Responses to Internal and External Crises"
  • 2013: Peace mediation training and coaching of officials of the European External Action Service and representatives of EU member states
  • 2012: Lecture "Peace Mediation in the context of EU and UN" at the Mediation Congress of the Bundes-Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Familien-Mediation, the Bundesverband Mediation and the Bundesverband Mediation in Wirtschaft und Arbeitswelt
  • 2012: Lecture "Mediation in international cooperation" at the expert meeting of the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on "Mediation in German development cooperation"
  • 2012: Workshop "What Will Be the Face and the Soul of EU Peace Mediation?" at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs on "EU's Peace Mediation Capacities: Leveraging for peace through fresh ideas"
  • 2012: Peace mediation training and coaching of European External Action Service officials and representatives of EU member states
  • 2011: Symposium "Peace Mediation in the Context of the EU. Snapshot of an Establishment Process". Symposium report.
  • 2011: Peace mediation training and coaching of officials of the European External Action Service and representatives of EU member states
  • 2010: Panel "Conflict Management & the EU" at the 20th Economic Forum, Krynica, Poland
  • 2009: Contributions to the workshop "The EU multitrack approach in international peace mediation: Building capacity and strengthening cooperation between the EU and private diplomacy actors" organised by the Initiative for Peacebuilding and CMI in Brussels, Belgium
  • 2008: Problem-solving workshop with conflict parties in cooperation with CITpax and swisspeace as part of an EU Confidence Building Mechanism

Middle East

Some of the Center`s activities touch the complex conflicts in the Middle East, particularly between Israel and the Palestinian Territories[TA1] [AD2] . The CPM is in contact with various political and practical actors working in or on this context.

Amongst others, the Middle East conflict is a regular subject in the workshops that the CPM offers as part of the International Parliamentary Fellowship (IPS) of the German Bundestag. The workshops offer a safe and structured space for an unfiltered exchange between different perspectives on that conflict and strategies to address it, including Germany's often critised role in the region.

Overview of activities

China

How do you deal with counterparts who do not recognize your own basic rules and values, and whose conduct you cannot accept, but with whom you are in a sensitive relationship of dependency? How can ‘rotten’ compromises be avoided in such relations – i.e., compromises that will be regretted because they support an inhumane regime or undermine the social value contract your own political system is based on? How to avoid in such contexts that dialogue activities are exploited, without risking that they are terminated in response? A methodological approach developed against this backdrop should make it possible to better manage the dilemmatic pattern inherent in international relationships in the context of systemic competition and fundamental differences in values.

 

A research project highlighted the different understandings of appropriate and effective conflict management in Europe and China. Implicit procedural conflicts, in which both sides are outraged about the other side's behavior, regularly make it impossible to resolve substantial political and normative conflicts in partnerships with heterogeneous values. A model developed against this backdrop combines concepts and methods from political philosophy and interest-based mediation to create a concrete approach for mediating such procedural conflicts:

  • Anne Isabel Kraus (now Holper) (2011): Culture-sensitive Process Design: Overcoming Ethical and Methodological Dilemmas. In: Simon Mason, Damiano Sguaitamatti (eds.), Religion in Conflict Transformation. Politorbis 52, 2.
  • Anne Isabel Kraus (now Holper) (2011): Intercultural Procedural Ethics. A Model for Mediating Conflicts between Particular Procedural Norms. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
  • Anne Isabel Kraus (now Holper) (2008): China and Europe: Negotiating between different procedural preferences. In: Mehta, Gerda; Rückert, Klaus: Mediation. Instrument of conflict resolution and service. P. 122ff. Vienna: Falter.
  • Anne Isabel Kraus (now Holper) (2007): Chinese-European Dispute Resolution in China: Towards Culturally Matching Procedures. EU-China European Studies Working Paper of Centrum für Angewandte Politikforschung.

Overview of activities

  • 20 October 2022: Input to the conference "Cultural Cooperation with China: Opportunities, Challenges, Red Lines?" of the Mercator Foundation and Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa)
  • 4 October 2021: Input to workshop “Practice Analysis in Intercultural Dialogue – Learning Experiences, Confidence Building and Best Practice” of the Mercator Foundation and Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa)

Afghanistan

The Center for Peace Mediation has worked in two different projects on Afghanistan.

In 2009-10, together with the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance it supported Afghan civil society leaders in strengthening their conflict management skills.

In 2022, against the background failed German engagement in Afghanistan, the CPM led an informal lessons learned process with the German Federal Foreign Office and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development on conflicting goals and concrete needs for change in interministerial cooperation.

Overview of activities