Policymakers, officials and activists are looking for more effective and accountable solutions to promote sustainable peace and security in an increasingly complex world. Nowhere are the normative and practical challenges more striking than in preventing and resolving armed conflict. From Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia to Kosovo, Afghanistan and Libya, the last two decades have brought both the costs and uncertainties of action and in-action into sharp relief. Despite a wealth of research, it remains a challenge to connect the dots in a way that responds to practical policy problems: how to rebalance sovereignty and non-interference with peace and human rights; how to craft effective and legitimate ways of limiting violence and promoting peace; how to build and manage effective and accountable institutions in conflict environments; and how to link available knowledge with critical policy decisions in time.

Currently, GPPi’s peace and security program engages in research and advisory work on external engagement in violent conflict through diplomacy, political-military interventions and support for institutional reform in the security sector. We focus on changing institutions and the role of norms, interests and knowledge at every level, from national authorities and the European Union to international organizations such as NATO and the United Nations. In addition, members of our team work on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, cyber security and the future of Euro-Atlantic security institutions.

Our research has been generously supported by the German Foundation for Peace Research, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation, Compagnia di San Paolo and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, among others.

Current projects

December 2012 – June 2013

Vocational Training in Fragile Contexts

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the German Federal Foreign Office have contracted GPPi to conduct a study on vocational training in fragile contexts.

May 2010 – September 2013

Strategic Management in Peace Operations

A research project that asks about the relationship between the institutional structure of interventions and their ability to strategically create and implement policy in post-conflict police reform at the examples of Afghanistan and Kosovo.

February 2013 – April 2014

Security and Development: A Transatlantic Civil Society Dialogue

The dialogue is a process for civil society organizations in the EU and the US to provide constructive input into the official EU-US Development Dialogue on policies for addressing the nexus of security and development, particularly around fragile states, peace- and state-building.

November 2012 – April 2015

Global Norm Evolution and the Responsibility to Protect

Together with academic partners in Europe, Brazil, China and India, this research project analyzes the evolution of global norms with a focus on the Responsibility to Protect.

November 2003 – ongoing

Global Atlanticists

This program was created to support the creation of a transatlantic community of policymakers willing and able to work together on responses to global problems.

Completed projects

December 2012 – May 2013

Never Again? The Responsibility to Protect and the Prevention of Mass Atrocities in Obama’s Foreign Policy

Contracted by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, GPPi aims to provide the German policy community with an analysis of the Obama administration's effort to prevent mass atrocities and implement the Responsibility to Protect.

January 2012 – May 2013

Global Governance 2022

How should the system of global governance be designed in the year 2022 in order to effectively and legitimately tackle the most pressing global challenges in the decade ahead and beyond? This is the question that the 24 GG2022 fellows tackle using the methods provided by future research.

August 2012 – May 2013