Berlin
Peace Dialogue
2023

In the last 60 years, more than 40 per cent of all intrastate conflicts have been linked to natural resources. Meanwhile, areas experiencing violent conflict make up 14 of the world’s 25 most vulnerable countries to climate change. This overlay of political and environmental challenges is becoming increasingly relevant, and should be considered by policymakers and peacebuilders alike. Therefore, during this workshop, we will discuss the effects of climate change and environmental issues in conflict contexts, and explore how environmental peacebuilding can be an effective tool for conflict prevention. We will invite experts in environmental peacebuilding to share their experiences and insights on the challenges and opportunities on this emerging practice.

Russia’s war against Ukraine buried Western illusions about frozen conflicts and the “management of conflicts” in the Eastern neighbourhood of the EU. What lessons can be learned from dealing with geopolitically contested, non-recognised states in the post-Soviet space? What linkages, what leverage could be used, and how do diplomatic, economic and civil society incentives interplay? Do we need new approaches beyond the past Eastern Neighbourhood policy of the EU?

Noch American English: Russia’s war against Ukraine buried Western illusions about “frozen” conflicts in the EU’s Eastern neighborhood and the possibilities of containing them. During this session, we will present and discuss a new study published by the Advisory Board analyzing the past experience and future prospects of Germany’s contributions to civilian conflict management and peacebuilding in the region. What lessons can be learned from Germany’s engagement in a geopolitically contested region? What has changed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and which windows of opportunities have emerged? What leverage could be used for peace, and how can diplomatic, economic, developmental, and civil society incentives be interlocked better?

The new German National Security Strategy contains the keyword “discriminatory power structures”. But what is the relevance of decolonisation to sustainable peacebuilding? Recent reports note that local peacebuilders believe that international peace interventions are primarily motivated by the interests of Global North actors and external geopolitical interests, leading many to distrust Global North actors leading peace efforts. What potentials can the feminist foreign and development policy offer for a decolonial process of change in the future? Peacebuilding funding is oftentimes perceived as opaque, inaccessible to most peacebuilding groups/organisations in the Global South, and mostly inadequate in terms of flexibility and duration. This reinforces the unequal power dynamics between Global North and Global South actors. As a result, the effectiveness of peace efforts suffers, and their sustainability is reduced. This leads to the question: can decolonisation guide future action to dismantle discriminatory power structures in the future? And how can this inform the revision of the Guidelines? In the workshop we want to discuss which strategies and resources from a decolonial perspective are necessary for successful peacebuilding.