By Lucas Steinbach, 23. July 2024 - Peacekeeping Operations are considered one of the most effective tools available to the UN to support a member state on its path from conflict to peace. Yet, their effectiveness does not go unquestioned: In the past years, protests against the peacekeeping operation in the DR Congo have spiraled in the eastern provinces of the country. This has strongly influenced the discourse around the UN peacekeeping operation MONUSCO and led to the decision of withdrawing the mission early by the end of 2024. This article sheds light on this dynamic and contextualizes the impact of local resistance on international peacebuilding efforts in the country.

By Amina Aden Maalim, 19. June 2024 - Somali Pastoral populations of Northeastern Kenya have lived for centuries in the semi-arid and arid regions of Northeastern Kenya. These groups have traditionally led a nomadic lifestyle, depending on their herds of cattle, sheep, goats, and camels for economic well-being and food. Nonetheless, these settlements have undergone a substantial socioeconomic shift in recent decades due to a complex interaction of variables including market forces, government regulations, climate change, and environmental degradation. The numerous facets of this continuous change will be examined in this essay, along with its effects on the livelihoods and lives of the Somali pastoralists in Northeastern Kenya

By Annalena Groppe, 27. September 2023 - Understandings of peace and corresponding approaches to peace education are shaped by their context's conflicts and violence (Salomon 2002). Moving between places allows one to see specifics more clearly. As my dissertation project explores peace education in polarizing conflicts over democracy in Germany, this text reflects on learning and facilitation in a peace studies department in Virginia, USA, the societal context from which the concept of polarization originates. Showing the didactical relevance of those conflicts, I explore the tension and complementarity between elicitve/process- and actor-oriented, critical/ self-reflective, and trauma-sensitive approaches to Peace Education.

By Dogukan Cansin Karakus, 7. December 2022 - Since Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, there has been a lingering risk that the conflict may spread beyond Ukrainian borders. It does not only mean that Russia may initiate a second wave of interstate conflict; it also means that other states, especially those with unresolved territorial disputes, might do so.