Conflict and conflict regulation

In many countries of the South violent conflicts have caused tremendous human suffering and obliterated countless efforts to promote development. Peace is a prerequisite for development. Hence, there is an urgent need to study the causes of intra- and interstate violence and to explore ways of peaceful conflict regulation.

Over the years, the ABI has established a tradition providing factions in strife with empirically guaranteed information so as to improve assessments of the prospects of peace on the one hand and to assume a moderating role between the parties to the conflict on the other. The best example of this approach was a conference organized by the ABI at which representatives of the apartheid government in South Africa and representatives of the black opposition sat down with each other for the first time. The representatives were presented with the results of an ABI study that provided evidence of the willingness of both black and white South Africans to make compromises – findings subsequently vindicated by history.

At present the ABI is engaged in researching various ongoing conflicts and collective memories that could in certain circumstances re-ignite past violence. The ABI uses an empirical approach of representative surveys to investigate a population's inclination for militancy or – as most past studies bear out – readiness for peace.

The Institute's research focus includes the following fields:

Coming to terms with the past

"Coming to terms with an authoritarian past" is a research area that deals with the broad field of the politics of history and of the past in post-authoritarian societies as well as with conflicts between different types of memory cultures. Particularly crucial elements – over and above immediate measures to punish the perpetrators and compensate the victims – include tension between state mandated and implemented politics of history and their repercussions on the reintegration of post-authoritarian or post-conflict societies on the one hand and civil society memory practices on the other. The work group is especially interested in encouraging or conducting transregional and transdisciplinary work on the topic of coming to terms with the past.

Ethno-religious conflict

In the contemporary world the most common form of conflict is that between politicized ethnic and religious groups. It often causes or exacerbates regional and even international wars. ABI scholars research the origins, factors, course, intensity and outcome of conflicts and in particular successful forms of conflict regulation. Results to date point to frequent overlapping between types of conflict (ethnic conflicts, distribution conflicts, etc.). As a rule, ethnicity is not the cause of such conflicts, but is construed as a cause and instrumentalized.

Post-war societies

Scientific studies of post-war or post-conflict societies raise the question of the stability of the peaceful order. The research efforts of the ABI focus on regions outside the OECD. Favoured research phenomena include intrastate conflict, in particular at the end of lengthy periods of intense violence; regions and territories with fragile state structures; and failed states.