The annual colloquium of the Peace and Conflict Research Working Group (AFK) took place in Leipzig from March 11 to 13, 2026. Under the title "Ideas and interfaces in peace and conflict research: the importance of inter- and transdisciplinary research", it was organized in cooperation with the Institute of Political Science at Leipzig University, Department of International Relations and Transnational Politics. Over the course of three days, more than 40 panels, workshops, roundtables and fishbowls on current issues and academic work from various areas of peace and conflict research were presented and discussed. On Thursday, a public panel discussion entitled "Peace and Security Strategies in Times of Hybrid Threats" took place.

The colloquium was organized by Dr. Samantha Ruppel and her team from the AFK office, which has been based at the Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate since 2024. Other Peace Academy employees contributed to the content of the colloquium. Annalena Groppe organized a workshop on "Affective Polarization as a Challenge - Dealing with Affectivity in Teaching and Peace Education Practice" together with Adham Hamed(Austrian Centre for Peace and University of Vienna) and Daniela Lehner(University of Graz). Christopher Rohles presented his paper "Between (inter)national norms and customary authorities: How do Civil Society Organizations navigate power dynamics and normative complexity in land reform in Sierra Leone" and Janpeter Schilling spoke about "Our Struggles with Resilience: Using Political Ecology to Strengthen the Concept of Resilience in Empirical Conflict Research and Critical Policy Analysis". In his role as second chairman of the AFK board, Schilling closed the event with some reflections.

The annual colloquium of the Peace and Conflict Research Working Group (AFK) took place in Leipzig from March 11 to 13, 2026. Under the title "Ideas and interfaces in peace and conflict research: the importance of inter- and transdisciplinary research", it was organized in cooperation with the Institute of Political Science at Leipzig University, Department of International Relations and Transnational Politics. Over the course of three days, more than 40 panels, workshops, roundtables and fishbowls on current issues and academic work from various areas of peace and conflict research were presented and discussed. On Thursday, a public panel discussion entitled "Peace and Security Strategies in Times of Hybrid Threats" took place.

The colloquium was organized by Dr. Samantha Ruppel and her team from the AFK office, which has been based at the Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate since 2024. Other Peace Academy employees contributed to the content of the colloquium. Annalena Groppe organized a workshop on "Affective Polarization as a Challenge - Dealing with Affectivity in Teaching and Peace Education Practice" together with Adham Hamed(Austrian Centre for Peace and University of Vienna) and Daniela Lehner(University of Graz). Christopher Rohles presented his paper "Between (inter)national norms and customary authorities: How do Civil Society Organizations navigate power dynamics and normative complexity in land reform in Sierra Leone" and Janpeter Schilling spoke about "Our Struggles with Resilience: Using Political Ecology to Strengthen the Concept of Resilience in Empirical Conflict Research and Critical Policy Analysis". In his role as second chairman of the AFK board, Schilling closed the event with some reflections.