Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

In cooperation with Prof. Dr. Benoît Bourgine (Louvain-la-Neuve), Mariana Chacón (Lima), Prof. Dr. Mohammed Dajani (Al Quds), Prof. Dr. Francois Dermange (Genf), Prof. Dr. Dennis Doyle (Dayton/Ohio), Matthias Gockel (Jena), Prof. Dr. Makoto Mizutani (Kyoto), Prof. Dr. Arie Nadler (Tel Aviv), Prof. Dr. Bertram Schmitz (Jena) and Dr. David Thombs (Dublin)
edited by  Prof. Dr. Martin Leiner (Jena)

The series “Research in Peace and Reconciliation” (RPR) provides an unique overview on the worldwide researches on peace and  reconciliation.  We follow a transdisciplinary perspective, linking Political Science, Psychology, History, Sociology, Law, Religious Studies, Theology, Economics and Cultural Anthropology with each  other. The origins of the concept of reconciliation in the Bible are treated as well as the experiences from the commissions of Truth and Reconciliation around the globe, Muslim concepts of peace as well as the Social Psychology of intergroup reconciliation. The authors are internationally renowned, but also innovative younger researchers from many countries. It is planned to publish seven volumes, one per year. All texts will be in English. The volumes will be:

1. Latin America between Conflict and Reconciliation (Susan Flämig/Martin Leiner)  Spring 2012

2. Sub-saharan Africa between Conflict and Reconciliation (Martin Leiner/Peggy Stöckner) Spring 2013

3. East Asia and Australia between Conflict and Reconciliation (Kanan Kitani/Martin Leiner/Markus Voss) Spring 2014

4. The Indian Subcontinent between Conflict and Reconciliation (Bertram Schmitz/Martin Leiner)  2015

5. North Africa and the Middle East between Conflict and Reconciliation (Mohammed Dajani/Martin Leiner/Arie Nadler/Markus Voss)  2016

6. Europe, Former Soviet-Union and North America between Conflict and Reconciliation (David Thombs/ Martin Leiner/David Gippner/Peggy Stöckner) 2017

7. Theories and Results of the transdisciplinary research on Peace and Reconciliation (Matthias Gockel/Martin Leiner) 2018

As part of a public presentation of the research profiles of the Faculty of Theology of the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Prof. Martin Leiner gave a lecture on his field of research: the practice of reconciliation in systematic-theological perspective.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft has confirmed the funding of the first level of the Trilateral Project, including a preparatory meeting in Israel for organising further steps.

The Volkswagen foundation fully finances our 2nd Summer School “Sub-Saharan Africa between Conflict and Reconciliation” (18th – 28th July 2011)!
More information on this website.

„Peace studies and world domestic policy in the 21st century“ was the name of the symposium in honour of Johan Galtungs 80th birthday taking place from 2nd to 5th of December 2010 in the Evangelische Akademie Villigst. The founder of modern peace research and the global conflict resolution network TRANSCEND honoured the symposium together with his wife and enriched each talk with personal anecdotes and his very own point of view.
Our team listened to interesting talks like

„Threatened peace today – World domestic policies bridging the gap between Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and Johan Galtung?“ or „Eco-social market economy and world finance system: world domestic policy as key to a better world“.

Apart from interesting perspectives on world domestic policy in the 21st century there were many possibilities to get to talk to experts like Johan Galtung himself or Hassan Hanafi from the University of Kairo or Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker.
The birthday party of Johan Galtung was the grand finale of the symposium.

The Hearts of Flesh
The “Turn” to Peace and Conciliation in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Since September 2010 we work on a new project: An interdisciplinary study of intergroup reconciliation dynamics with a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

The project wants to advocate the discourse between both partners on the levels:

• first, by the collaboration of the “cross-conflict” partnerships their cooperation on cultural and intellectual levels is to cultivated
• secondly, projects are to be established, which are to be of direct assistance to victims of the conflict
• finally, it is about international and interdisciplinary cooperation, which is vital for illuminating the complex tensions between Israelis and Palestinians decidedly and considering approaches from different directions.

Coordinators of the project are » Prof. Dr. Martin Leiner (Chair for systematic theology/ ethics in Jena, Germany), » Dr. Martin O’Malley (associate at the Center of Ethics in Jena) and » Prof. Dr. Arie Nadler (Chair for social psychology in Tel Aviv, Israel).

Read more on.

Villa Schwanenwerder

Our team attended a meeting on “Religion-Konflikt-Frieden” (Religion-Conflict-Peace), an annual conference of the interdisziplinary research group on “Religion and Conflict”, which took place at the » Protestant Academy of Berlin.
We had an informative time with many stimulating lectures and discussions about “Religion and Development Policy”, “Religion and Foreign Policy”, “Religion and Human Rights”, etc.

House of the Wannsee Conference

Afterwards, we used the free Sunday afternoon for a visit to the » House of the Wannsee Conference. It is now a memorial place and an educational institution about the organization of the annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany in January 1942. » pictures

We finished our visit in Berlin with a visit to the » Max-Liebermann-Villa, located also at the Wannsee, and arrived back home with a lot of impressions and insights.

The Summer School „Societies in Transition. Latin America between Conflict and Reconciliation“ in Jena was a great success and received high marks.

The programme focussed on the historical changes in Latin American societies, as seen from different perspectives. The main part were lectures, workshops, and the presentation of participants’ projects. In addition there were films, excursions with guided tours, a reception, a farewell party, and walking tours through Jena.

On the first day, Prof. Leiner briefly presented the overall concept of the Summer Schools. Patricia Tappatá de Valdez, Executive Director of the human rights organization » “Memoria Abierta”, then discussed practical questions related to the reappraisal of the military dictatorships in Argentinien und El Savador, where she served as a member of the truth commission.
On the next day, Prof. Elizabeth Lira spoke about the history of Chile, coming to terms with the Pinochet dictatorship. In the evening, we showed the film “The Judge and the General”, which focussed on legal and humanitarian aspects and revealed the deep divisions that still exist in Chilean society. After the focus on southern Latin America, there were several lectures, and a film, related to Central America. Dr. David Tombs shared his expertise on the role of the churches in Guatemala and El Salvador. Prof. Francisco Rojas had prepared a lecture on the causes of the rise of crime in countries like El Salvador and the consequences for peace building processes, but he had to cancel his participations on short notice, due to his invitation to participate in the mediation attempt of the Costa Rican government in the political crisis in Honduras (after the ouster of President Zelaya on June 28, 2009). His lecture was presented by Prof. Lira.
A panel discussion in the university book store and a lecture by Prof. Andreas Hasenclever, with a sociological and empirical focus, provided a survey of recent social studies on reconciliation and addressed the question of comparing peace building processes in different countries.

Another important part were the four workshops:

• Peacebuilding – The Challenge of Coherent Strategies (Flämig, Hasenclever)
• Mediation – Practical Skills in Managing Conflicts (Clegg)
• Religion and Reconciliation (Leiner)
• Dealing with the Past – Latin American Case Studies (Valdez, Tomuschat)

Finally, the excursions to Weimar and Leipzig as well as the showing of the Academy Award winning movie “The Life of the Others” led to an inspired critical discussion and brought into conversation the memorialization of recent German history with corresponding processes in Latin America (and South Africa, Iraq, China, Japan, etc.).

The Evaluation of the Summer School 2009 can be found in PDF.

Our project partner Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela

In the first days of September Dr. Thomas Schlegel and Susan Flaemig travelled to South Africa to meet our partner at the University of Cape Town, Prof. Dr. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. She is psychologist and expert in issues related to trauma, forgiveness and reconciliation in the aftermath of the apartheid era. During our meetings with Prof. Gobodo-Madikizela we discussed different topics of our collaboration: finances, exchange programs and the special contribution of the South African Unit of RARE.
The CRU under the heading of Prof. Gobodo-Madikizela tries “to investigate factors that give rise to collective violence”, especially with their connection to reconciliation and religion:
“The question of why the South African agenda of reconciliation, lauded as a unique model across the globe, seems to have failed in preventing the extreme forms of violence is one of the concerns I will bring to this research collaboration,” says Gobodo-Madikizela.

Piet Meiring, Susan Flämig and Thomas Schlegel

Besides the meetings at the UCT Schlegel and Flaemig interviewed persons who were personally involved in the reconciliation process: Prof. Farid Esack, Prof. Nico Koopman, Prof. Piet Meiring, Dr. Christo Thesnaar, Dr. Robert Vosloo and Prof. John de Gruchy. They all agreed that reconciliation is still a big issue in South Africa, although the public awareness has moved on to mostly economic questions, the problem of poverty and AIDS. Especially the violence shows that the process of building one nation is still to complete. Religion should play a leading role in this difficult task.

Professor for Systematical Theology and Ethic

Professor Martin Leiner was invited to discuss our EURORARE-project with specialists in this field. At the »“Forschungsstätte der evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft” (FEST) in Heidelberg he met also with researchers from the »„German Institute of Global and Area Studies” (GIGA Hamburg). With great interest they followed the presentation of Prof. Leiner and discussed a possible partnership with the project “Religion and Conflict in Africa”. The colloquium ended with arrangements for further meetings.

The professors and proposer of EURORARE Ingolf U. Dalferth, Hans Joas and Martin Leiner are invited to the ESF “Forward Look Scoping Workshop on ‘Belief Systems’” which is to be held on 27-28 August 2007 in Copenhagen. “The workshop will discuss the scope of a possible foresight exercise on priorities and agendas for new research into belief systems, religion and secularism in contemporary and historical societies and cultures.”

The first outline draft of an interesting PhD-project in Kongo (with relation to Southeast Europe) arrived at our desk in Jena. You will find it on this website.