Our Vision
Our vision is a world in which people with different backgrounds and circumstances are willing and able to recognise and address conflicts by non-violent, constructive, and sustainable means.
Our Mission
We support people so that they can engage in conflicts non-violently, constructively and sustainably. In doing so, we acknowledge the close interdependence between research on, education about, and the practice of conflict transformation. We conduct research projects on peace and security policy, are involved in mediation between conflict parties and engage in political consulting; we offer target group-oriented training programmes and advanced education for civilian experts and youth. The constant advancement of innovative theory and practice is built upon a foundation of dialogue and cooperation with international institutions, networks, theoreticians and practitioners of conflict transformation.
Our Principles
In our work, we align ourselves along the following principles:
PLURALISM AND COMPLEXITY
There are no simple answers, particularly for managing long-lasting conflict situations. Therefore, in our work we strive for pluralistic approaches that sometimes even result in contradictory findings. In the process, we are guided by non-linear complexity theory.
PARTNERSHIP AND CRITIQUE OF VIOLENCE
For us the conflict parties themselves are the experts for their respective conflict. We support them to take responsibility for their negotiations, meet our partners and clients on equal footing and consider ourselves “Learning Companions”. In doing so, we are deliberately critical of violence. We pay particular attention to the inclusion and the integration of perspectives and stakeholders, who are often “forgotten”, marginalised, or excluded during conflict transformation and peacebuilding.
CREATIVITY AND REFLEXIVITY
Working for peace and conflict transformation requires creativity. At the same time we constantly reflect upon our work in order to learn from our successes as well as our failures. For us, creativity and reflection are the foundations for innovation. The mutual exchange and cross-fertilisation of practice and theory is especially important.