How can peacebuilding be successfully implemented in practice by 2026—despite massive budget cuts, an all-pervasive focus on security, strategy, and the military, and an increasingly violent present? As part of the field trip for the Conflict Studies & Peacebuilding master’s program , Prof. Ulrich Schneckener and Hannes Kohlhoff, together with a group of students, visited a wide variety of practitioners in Berlin’s political circles. The key questions: How do organizations implement peacebuilding and conflict management at the intersections of development, security, and related fields, despite all the current obstacles? And what does the professional future look like for young peace and conflict researchers?
The study trip kicked off with a presentation of the 2026 Peace Report, authored by Germany’s four major PACS institutes ( PRIF Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, and bicc—Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies) at the Evangelical Academy in Berlin. Under the title “The New Warlords,” Prof. Nicole Deitelhoff, Katharina Ahrendts, head of a department at the Federal Foreign Office, and Achim Steiner, former head of the UNDP, among others, discussed the role of international and collective institutions. In light of Germany’s unsuccessful bid for a seat on the UN Security Council, the credibility of peacebuilding efforts was also the subject of a controversial and heated debate.
Over the following two days, the group met with various practitioners from the fields of policy consulting, education, mediation, and humanitarian aid: The German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) with Lars Brozus; the ZIF—Center for International Peace Operations gGmbH with Tobias Pietz; the Friedrich Ebert Foundation with Johann Ivanov; the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) with Julia Friedrich and Paul Flachenecker; Brot für die Welt with Amelie Overmann, and the Berghof Foundation with Beatrix Austin and Juan Diaz-Prinz.
The much-discussed cuts were perceived as an extremely short-sighted policy that will essentially weaken Germany’s “soft power” and bring an end to some long-standing relationships with countries in the Global South—particularly at the civil society level—and this at a time when cooperation is needed more than ever. Furthermore, it also became clear that cuts to development aid reduce the opportunities to address the root causes of forced migration and to prevent secondary migration from safe host countries for refugees.
We thank all host organizations for the fascinating insights and look forward to future exchanges and the continuation of the discussions we’ve begun on peacebuilding and the extremely diverse practices of peace policy!
