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The collection entitled Erziehung für Frieden, Menschenrechte und Demokratie im UNESCO-Kontext, (Education for Peace, Human Rights, and Democracy in the UNESCO Context), published in March this year under the general editorship of Werner Köhler, offers a selection of up-to-date UN and UNESCO documents and other source-materials indicating the principles, objectives, and major tasks of the 'culture of peace' strategy, and also of the obstacles and problems it faces.
This source-book is published jointly by the Europäisches Universitätszentrum für Friedensstudien (known by its old acronym of 'EPU') and the Austrian UNESCO Commission and is intended to fill a gap in the educational field--the mainstay of a 'culture of peace'. It facilitates access to relevant primary documents and helps ensure these are more widely disseminated and applied in practice. The selection of materials covers a broad time-span, from the foundation of the United Nations to the present day.
The two publishing bodies are concerned not only to promote the dissemination of educationally relevant international source-material on peace, human rights, and democracy, but also to develop projects and activities in which this material can be applied. Thus conferences are held which bring together educationists, scholars, educational administrators, and representatives of associations and organizations, to engage in scholarly discourse and to exchange experiences. In addition, in 1996 a UNESCO chair in 'peace, human rights, and democracy', focusing particularly on 'education for a culture of peace', was established. The present volume is one of its first products.
Contact: Europäisches Universitätszentrum für Friedensstudien, Rochusplatz 1, A-7461 Stadtschlaining, Tel.: +43 (3355) 2498-508/509/515; Fax: +43 (3355) 2662, e-mail [email protected]
The theme and title of the 1997 Friedensbericht (Peace Report--published as vol. 32/1-2 in the 'DIALOG' series and containing the papers from the 1996 'State of Peace' conference) is 'The Future of South-East Europe'. The report presents the individual contributions to the conference in five extensive sections: (1) report and analysis (Chechnya, Middle East, NATO enlargement, military Keynesianism); (2) conflict management in post-Yugoslavia after Dayton; (3) theory and practice of conflict management (OSCE/security model for Europe, conflict in Africa; (4) disputed issues in peace and conflict research (globalization and nation-states); (5) documentation (European Civil Peace Corps: ECPC).
Contact: Schweizerische Friedensstiftung, Wasserwerkgasse 7, Postfach 43, CH-3000 Bern 13, Tel.: +41 (31) 310-2727, Fax: +41 (31) 310-2728, e-mail: [email protected]
To mark the 350th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia, a 'European Peace Congress' will be held from 29 to 31 May in Osnabrück. The anniversary will be used by the congress as an opportunity to discuss current political issues and problems within the European peace movement, to propose alternative, non-military models of conflict resolution, to highlight the vulnerability of conscientious objectors to prosecution in Europe and call for their protection.
The congress will focus on European crises and trouble-spots, with the specific problems associated with each of these. It will aim to give a voice mainly to the victims of war and repression. By presenting examples of successful peace initiatives, it hopes to foster positive approaches. Another important function of the congress will be the formation of links between existing initiatives on peace, human rights, refugees, and conscientious objectors. It is envisaged that it will act not only as a place of interchange between individual groups, but also as a point of contact with experts from politics, the academic world, and non-governmental organizations at the European level, and that it will play an active part in the shaping of international peace policy.
The congress is being organized by a consortium of about forty German peace and human rights groups and associations from Germany and the rest of the world. The main topics--'Conscientious objection as a human right', 'Pacifist political concepts of peace', and 'The situation of conscientious objectors and refugees in south-east and eastern Europe'--are currently being prepared in three workgroups.
Contact: European Peace Congress Osnabrück '98, Postfach 4124, D-49031 Osnabrück, Tel.: +49 (541) 260 650, Fax: +49 (541) 260 680, e-mail: [email protected], http://www.dfg-vk.de/peacecongress1998
The International Fellowship of Reconciliation requests articles (of a maximum of 20,000 words) for a publication on the strategies which women all over the world use to counter religious fundamentalism. The publication aims to collect and disseminate concrete examples, at the international level, of individual and collective resistance by women against fundamentalist attacks and against the suppression of human rights.
The main theme of the booklet--to be published in IFOR's yearly 'Patterns' series--will be the threat which fundamentalist Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist movements pose to women. Contributions should provide an analysis of the following issues: Why does control of women form part of the fundamentalist agenda? What cases of human-rights violations against women by fundamentalist religious groups do we know of? What tactics and strategies do women employ to counter fundamentalist attacks? How effective have these strategies proved to be?
IFOR is particularly interested in connections between the role of religion in conflict and how this affects women.
Contact: International Fellowship of Reconciliation, Spoorstraat 38, NL-1815 BK Alkmaar, Tel.: +31 (72) 5123014, Fax: +31 (72) 5151102, e-mail: [email protected], http://www.gn.apc.org/i/for
Australia
The International Institute for Negotiation and Conflict Management is a research association that promotes conflict management projects (in the form of action research and practical action), using both government funds and third-party funds secured by itself. Although in terms of infrastructure it forms part of the University of Technology in Sydney, the institute initiates and co-ordinates its projects independently.
With the help of IINCM funding, the following projects have either already come into operation or are at the theoretical testing stage: (1) academic/teaching schemes such as 'Project 20' (see AFB-INFO 1/97, 18) or the academic advisory panel (made up of eminent international conflict management specialists); (2) publication projects such as the planned volume on 'negotiation, conflict management and dispute resolution' and the resource database; (3) systems of certification for 'negotiation-aware and conflict-managed organizations' or 'skills and competencies of problem-solvers, negotiators, mediators and facilitators'; (4) networking or 'connectivity' schemes such as 'Project Connect', a global database and network for conflict management professionals.
Contact: International Institute for Negotiation and Conflict Management, PO Box 123, Broadway, Sydney NSW 2007 Australia, Tel.: +61 (2) 9514 3492, Fax: +61 (2) 9514 3455, e-mail: [email protected]
The Center for Peace Research and Strategic Studies in Leuven, Belgium, offers interested individuals the opportunity to conduct their own research in the two named fields. Its specialist areas include: (1) prevention of violent conflicts, including case studies of former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Burundi, and the development of a 'conflict impact assessment system' (CIAS); (2) field diplomacy, including the compilation of a handbook for professional and non-professional diplomats, due for publication in 1998; (3) democratization and conflict prevention, including evaluation of the democratization process in Georgia, Romania, Tunisia, and Burundi; (4) European security, covering the development of the OCSE, NATO, the EU, and the WEU, security in the Baltic states, and the situation in Georgia, Romania, and Bosnia; (5) security and conflict prevention in Africa, with special reference to the Great Lakes Region.
In addition, the centre publishes the 'Cahiers of the Center of Peace Research and Strategic Studies' (in English), as well as conference and research reports compiled by members of the centre.
Contact: Center for Peace Research and Strategic Studies/Centruum voor Vredesonderzoek en Strategische Studies, K.U. Leuven, Van Evenstraat, 2 B, 30000 Leuven, Belgien, Tel.: +32 (16) 323241, Fax: +32 (16) 323088, e-mail: [email protected]
In AFB-Info 1/97 (pp. 5-6), we published an article on the Acadmie de la Paix et de la Scurit Internationale (in Nice) based on a report by Herbert Lamm. For technical reasons, the article had to appear in a greatly abridged form. Anyone interested in the work of the APSI can obtain the full version of the report by writing to the address below.
Contact: Herbert Lamm, 9 Route de Chavigny, F-02600 Longport B.P. 98, France.
Publication of the Jahrbuch Frieden (Peace Yearbook), which has reported each year since 1990 on current conflicts, arms and disarmament, and peace work, was discontinued as from March 1977, following a decision by the C. H. Beck publishing company. The editors, Hanne-Margret Birckenbach, Uli Jäger, and Christian Wellmann, who produced the yearbook jointly with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (AFK: German Association for Peace and Conflict Research), the Österreichisches Studienzentrum für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (ÖSFK: Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Research), and the Schweizerische Friedensstiftung (SFS: Swiss Peace Foundation), were not informed about the background to this unexpected decision until January 1997. The publisher's arguments made no sense to anyone--including the three participating organizations--and all the AFK could do was to express its thanks to the editors for their committed and commendable work. The AFK executive is currently considering whether a new Peace Yearbook could be produced in collaboration with another publisher.
Contact: Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung e.V., c/o Christiane Lammers (GF), Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Friedenswissenschaften NRW, FB-Erziehungs-, Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften, Fernuniversität-GHS-Hagen, Elberfelder Str. 95, D-58084 Hagen, Tel.: +49 (2331) 987 4797, Fax: +49 (2331) 332904.
This year's Friedensgutachen (Peace Report), which, as usual, is published jointly by the Forschungsstätte der Evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft (FEST: Protestant Institute for Interdisciplinary Research), the Institut für Friedensforschung und Sicherheitspolitik an der Universität Hamburg (IFSH: Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg), and the Hessische Stiftung für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (HSFK: Peace Research Institute Frankfurt), contains a chapter devoted to the causes of, and background to, the precarious situation in Central Africa. Although largely ignored by world public opinion, the second phase of decolonialization currently under way there constitutes a new threat to peace and security.
The debate about the role of the military in the construction of a European security system is continued in two sections on NATO enlargement, and a chapter on European integration sets out the expectations and prognoses for the EU summit in Amsterdam and examines the multifarious activities of the OSCE.
In addition, there are separate articles on: the political and economic trends in Russia and the CIS countries; the prospects for a solution to the ongoing dispute between India and Pakistan; the 'Dayton process' in former Yugoslavia; and the endangered peace process in the Middle East. There is also, finally, a critical discussion of the likelihood of new disarmament measures on chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons-systems and of the trend towards a further relaxation of German arms-export controls.
Contact: Forschungsstätte der Evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft, Schmeilweg 5, D-69118 Heidelberg, Tel.: +49 (6221) 91220, Fax: +49 (6221) 167257.
The Bonn International Center for Conversion has set up a separate Internet homepage on one of its special areas . Those interested in the topic of military expenditure can now consult the Milex Newsletter at the address given below. The newsletter contains: data and information on military expenditure (by country and country-group); listings of events and conferences; relevant bibliographies and book reviews; a profile of the BICC project on the peace dividend; links with other relevant projects; a list of experts in the field; and, finally, a discussion forum designed to stimulate debate on topical themes.
Contact: Bonn International Center for Conversion, An der Elisabethkirche 25, D-53113 Bonn, +49 (228) 911960, Fax: +49 (228) 241215, e-mail: [email protected], http://bicc.uni-bonn.de/milex
The sixth volume in the series 'Kieler Schriften zur Friedenswissenschaft' (Kiel Peace Studies Texts), which is published under the general editorship of Christian Wellmann (of the Schleswig-Holstein Institute for Peace Studies--SCHIFF), addresses the question of whether fact-finding by international organizations such as the United Nations, the OSCE, the European Council of Ministers, and others can help bring about a transformation in conflict situations. In the book, entitled Preventive Diplomacy through Fact-Finding: How International Organizations Review the Conflict over Citizenship in Estonia and Latvia, Hanne-Margret Birckenbach considers ways of assessing preventive diplomacy, using the examples of Estonia and Latvia. The book (published in English) also contains a whole range of documents and reports by international organizations and rapporteurs on the Estonian and Latvian case-studies cited.
Contact: Dr Hanne-Margret Birckenbach, Schleswig-Holsteinisches Institut für Friedenswissenschaften an der Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Kaiserstr. 2, D-24143 Kiel, Tel.: +49 (431) 77572851, Fax: +49 (431) 77572852, e-mail: [email protected]
A report by the group Weltwirtschaft, Ökologie & Entwicklung e.V. (World Economy, Ecology and Development: WEED) on German UN policy has been published as volume 3 in the 'EINE Welt' series, produced by the Stiftung Entwicklung und Frieden (SEF: Development and Peace Foundation). The collection of papers, entitled UN-williges Deutschland, addresses the question of the growing importance of the UN in German policy and the frequently highlighted increased German responsibility within the international community. The articles are gathered into four chapters ('security and peace', 'world economy, ecology and development', 'human rights', and 'UN reform') and describe Germany's role and interests as it seeks appropriate new political concepts and institutions of a kind in which the United Nations will play a key role.
The contributions on particular themes (What ambitions does Germany have on the world stage? Does this amount to more than the quest to secure a place in the UN Security Council? Is Germany really ready to become systematically involved in the multilateral policies of the UN?) were not written in isolation. They are the result of intensive discussions conducted at a specialist meeting that took place in January 1997 between the authors of the book and representatives of politics, the administration, the political parties, the academic world, and non-governmental organizations.
Contact: Stiftung Entwicklung und Frieden, Gotenstr. 152, D-53175 Bonn, Tel.: +49 (228) 95925-0, Fax: +49 (228) 95925-99.
In a study on conflict prevention published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation (spring 1997), Dr Lisa Schirch has assembled the results of an evaluation of socially based conflict prevention carried out jointly by a number of mediators in the field. The study--entitled Den Frieden sichern: Wie zivile Alternativen zur Konfliktprävention entwickelt werden (Securing Peace: How Civilian Options for Conflict Prevention Evolve)--is devoted mainly to the role played by 'third parties' in the non-violent resolution of conflicts and constitutes an important contribution to the discussion about the development of a civilian peace service. As such, it is addressed mainly to the following target groups: groups in conflict situation that are considering asking civilian peace groups to intervene; non-governmental organizations; information-disseminators of various kinds who are already working with civilian peace groups and who wish to refine their approaches; governments that want to work with civilian peace groups.
Contact: Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung e.V., Hackesche Höfe, Rosenthalerstr. 40/41, D-10178 Berlin, Tel.: +49 (30) 285340, Fax: +49 (30) 285734109, e-mail: [email protected]
This was the theme explored by Martina Fischer in a working paper (Bausteine für eine zivile Außenpolitik der Europäischen Union) published by the Institut für Internationale Politik (Institute for International Politics) in May this year. The paper's main concern is to take a closer look at the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) in the context of a European peace order. With this in mind, the author devotes the first chapter to a review of the EU's current external policy and then, in a second section, contrasts this with civilian conflict resolution in the world of states and the societal world. Practical options for a civilian foreign policy are then detailed, and these are summarized in ten conclusions regarding revision of the Maastricht Treaty. There is an appendix containing bibliographical and documentary sources on the EU, the CFSP, and the broader sphere of political consultation and non-governmental organizations.
Contact: Institut für International Politik, Rykestr. 40, D-10405 Berlin, Tel./Fax: +49 (30) 6097803.
The Bonn-based Council on International Educational Exchange e.V. (CIEE) is taking over, with immediate effect, the 'Study USA/Education USA' advisory service previously run by the America Houses in Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig, and Berlin. The service covers: school exchanges, summer camps, language courses, au-pair trips, volunteer programmes, work camps, work placements, summer jobs, and university courses.
Admission procedures, conditions of acceptance, funding options, and visa queries are also dealt with by the service. As well as the advice offered in the Infotheken or information centres, regular local presentations take place, including a minimum of four 'information bazaars' per year per Amerika-Haus on the following topics: school exchanges, au-pairing (August/September), courses and work placements (October/November), summer programmes for young people (January/February), and students and working people (February). In addition to the general, cost-free advice sessions, individual consultations, topic-based workshops, and 'info-package' services are available against payment of a fee.
Contact: Dr Kurt Gamerschlag, Council on International Educational Exchange e.V., Thomas-Mann-Str. 33, D-53111 Bonn, Tel.: +49 (228) 98360-0, Fax: +49 (228) 959564.
Two new publications on the theme of security and disarmament have recently appeared as part of the AFES-PRESS series (published by the Arbeitsgruppe Friedensforschung und europäische Sicherheitspolitik--Study-Group on Peace Research and European Security). The editors, Henrik Bullens and Seiitsu Tachibana, are convenors of the 'Security and Disarmament' commission of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA). The two books--Arms Industry at the Crossroads: Conversion, Restructuring and Arms Trade in Europe (H. Bullens) and Restructuring Security Concepts: Postures and Industrial Base (H. Bullens/S. Tachibana)--contain contributions by more than twenty international experts on the following themes: nuclear weapons and deterrence; international trends in trade in conventional and small-calibre arms ; the peace dividend; peace culture; the restructuring and (non-) conversion of arms industries in East and West; proliferation of military technology (including dual-use) and preventive arms control; new and more comprehensive security concepts for the post-Cold War world.
While individual chapter focus on historical review, empirical analysis of current trends, and theoretical conceptualizing or policy counselling, the majority have in common a critical view of the post-Cold War world era.
Contact: Dr Hans Günter Brauch, AG Friedensforschung und europäische Sicherheitspolitik, AFES-PRESS, Alte Bergsteige 47, D-74821 Mosbach, Tel.: +49 (6261) 12912, Fax: +49 (6261) 15695.
The Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, which was established in Tokyo and Honolulu in spring 1996, aims to support peace initiatives at local, national, regional, and international levels and, with this in mind, proposes concrete strategies that can be translated into practical action. Its main thematic areas are: (1) human security and global governance, (2) human rights and global ethics, (3) social justice and the global economy, (4) cultural identity and global citizenship. In 1996 a project on human security and global governance was also begun which aims to develop intermeshing dialogic structures at all levels, focusing on the threats to, and promises of, peace and justice in the twenty-first century. To date, three international conferences have taken place as part of the project. The institute also publishes a series of working papers on the above-named themes, and an occasional journal entitled Peace and Policy.
Contact: Toda Institute: Headquarters, 3-10-18 Kita-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107, Japan, Tel.: +81 (3) 5469-0321, Fax: +81 (3) 5469-0320, e-mail: [email protected]
Honolulu centre: 1600 Kapiolani Blvd., Suite 1111, Honolulu, Hawai 96814, USA, Tel.: +1 (808) 988-9563, Fax: +1 (808) 988-4483, e-mail: [email protected]
The creation of the Institute of International Peace Research stems from Hiroshima's experience as the first city in human history to suffer an atomic bombing. Against this background, the institute aims to work through relevant experiences using a broad-based practical and theoretical approach, and hopes in this way to make a contribution to international peace research. With these two objectives in mind, the institute will organize locally based lectures and seminars and will actively share the findings of these with the population; in collaboration with similar research bodies and with the aid of an international network, it will promote approaches that are conducive to preventive conflict analysis in the fields of research, teaching, and political consultation at both international and local level.
The institute's main areas of interest are: damage caused by the A-bomb, other nuclear issues; conflict analysis and peace order; development and environment; peace philosophy and thought; quantitative analysis of peace.
Contact: Institute of International Peace Research, Hiroshima City University, 151-5 Ozuka, Numata-cho, Asaminami-ku, Hiroshima City, 731-31 Japan, Tel.: +81 (82) 830-1500, Fax: 81 (82) 830-1656, http://www.hiroshima-cu.ac.jp/
The Black Sea University Foundation was created in 1993 in Mangalia, on the Romanian Black Sea coast. It is a non-governmental organization offering short international postgraduate courses to young researchers, economic specialists, managers, and teachers. Up to now, about one hundred international courses have been held on topical themes directly related to the region. These were grouped into seven programmes: international relations, future studies, culture and contemporary problems, peace management, economy and management, ecology and sea resources, advanced and applied science.
Also included in the foundation's activities are international conferences and a series of 'round tables', at which scholars and politicians from the Black Sea region and other neighbouring areas (e.g. the Middle East) come together to talk to one another and exchange experiences.
In 1996 a Conflict Prevention Centre (CPC) was set up within the Black Sea University and has now become a special BSUF project. It seeks to analyse the causes of conflicts in the region, set up a relevant world-wide information system, conduct case studies and comparative analyses on conflict management, and offer a practical training in the field of conflict prevention and resolution.
Contact: Conflict Prevention Centre of the Black Sea University Foundation, Calea 13 Septembrie nr. 13, etaj 7, Bucharest-5, Romania, Tel.: +40 (1) 411 3918, Fax: +40 (1) 411 2601, e-mail: [email protected]
The journal Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society is published three times a year and is devoted mainly to gender-related research at the state and societal levels. Topics dealt with in the 1996 issues included 'Gender Inequalities in Global Restructuring', and 'Gender Citizenship in Transition'. The first two issues for 1997 focused on: 'Gender and Rationalization in Comparative Historical Perspective: Germany and the United States', and 'Gender and Welfare Regimes: Further Thoughts'. Further information on conditions for prospective contributors are available from the addresses below.
Contact: Ann Orloff, Dept. of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, 1180 Observatory Dr. Madison, WI 53706, Fax: +1 (608) 265-3119, e-mail: [email protected]
Barbara Hobson, Sociology Dept., Stockholm University, S-10691 Stockholm, Fax: +46 (8) 612 5580, e-mail: [email protected]
A one-hour video documentary, From the Shadow of History , which uses the example of the former Yugoslavian republic of Macedonia to show how conflicts can be prevented, has been made by Alice Ackermann and Sanjeev Chatterjee of the University of Miami, Florida. After Yugoslavia split up, the Republic of Macedonia managed to avoid becoming entangled in the war and in ethnic violence. The documentary, filmed in summer 1996 in Macedonia, includes extensive footage of the work of the United Nations, the OSCE, and various non-governmental organizations, thus showing how political dialogue, preventive peace-keeping , and community-building at the grassroots level have preserved the preconditions for peace in this tiny Balkan country.
The film can be used as a vivid visual aid in introducing the topic of preventive diplomacy. It is intended for dissemination primarily to international organizations and NGOs interested in knowing more about preventive action.
Contact: Prof. Alice Ackermann/Prof. Sanjeev Chatterjee, Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS), University of Miami, PO Box 248123, Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA, Tel.: +1 (305) 538-9187, e-mail: [email protected]
The Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, Washington DC, set up in May 1994, investigates the principal causes of deadly ethnic, nationalist, and religious conflicts within and between states, and the circumstances that foster their outbreak. Within the framework of the commission's three-part conceptual approach, interested researchers and students can study possible preventive measures and the dynamic of conflicts that end in mass violence. The conceptual approach focuses on three issues: (1) What is the problem posed by 'deadly conflict' within or between states, and why is outside help necessary to deal with it? (2) How should this help be structured? (3) Who should undertake this task?
Contact: Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, 2400 N St., NW, Sixth Floor, Washington DC 20037-1153, USA, Tel.: +1 (202) 4297979, Fax: +1 (202) 4299291, e-mail: [email protected]
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