The Memorandum 2013 issued by the advisory body of the Action Plan "Civilian Crisis Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Peace Consolidation" draws on a similar initiative on the occasion of the parliamentary elections in 2009.
The civil war in Syria and the military coup in Egypt highlight the unaltered topicality of the issue. Even today a strategy discussion about contents and dimensions of German peace and security policy is urgently required. The idea of prevention and the capacity to conflict management have to be the center of attention.
On that point, the memorandum provides specific suggestions. It pleads for strategic and institutional coherency, increased transparency and an effective impact control. Furthermore, it insistently advocates improving social anchorage, which used to be one of the signature features of German crisis prevention. With the Action Plan "Civilian Crisis Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Peace Consolidation" a civil society advisory board was established for this purpose in 2005, which however lives in the shadow. Following the example set by other advisory boards of the Federal Government, it has to be converted into an effective organ of consultation. This constitutes a necessary addition to the parliamentary supervision and control by the subcommittee on "Civilian Crisis Prevention and Networked Security" of the German Bundestag. The subcommittee was established in accordance with the memorandum of 2009 after the last parliamentary elections. The continuation of its work is required.
The memorandum, which was published in July, has obtained a lot of feedback, also among the parties of the German Bundestag. They concordantly agree with the necessity of crisis prevention and civil conflict management. However, predominantly they keep their voices down concerning the suggestions of the memorandum of 2013. The initiators of the memorandum hope that the parties will take a stand with further concrete steps after the recent parliamentary elections.
The statements of the parties are available as a pdf download [German only]
The memorandum 2013 "Prevent violence – Manage conflicts without violence" is available as a pdf download [German only]
The memorandum was written by members of the advisory council to the Action Plan: Hans-Joachim Giessmann, Executive Director, Berghof Foundation; Jörn Grävingholt, Co-Chair of the Advisory Council, German Development Institute; Bernhard Moltmann, Representative of the Gemeinsame Konferenz Kirche und Entwicklung (GKKE); Winfried Nachtwei, Co-Chair of the Advisory Council, member of the Bundestags (retired); Hans-Joachim Spanger, Executive Board of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt; Angelika Spelten, German Platform for Peaceful Conflict Management; Marc von Boemcken, Bonn International Center for Conversion.
Among the numerous supporters of the memorandum are Renke Brahms, Peace Commissioner of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany; Michael Brzoska, Director, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg; Tobias Debiel, Director, Institute for Development and peace at the University of Duisburg-Essen; Jan Gildemeister, Managing Director, Action Committee Service for Peace; Christiane Lammers, Managing Director, Institute for Peace and Democracy, FernUniversität Hagen; Andreas Mehler, Director, GIGA Institute for Afrikan Studies; Dirk Messner, Director, German Development Institute; Horst Scheffler, Executive Military Dean (retired), Chair of the Action Committee Service for Peace; the professors of peace and conflict studies Eva Senghaas-Knobloch and Dieter Senghaas; Conrad Schetter, Director, Bonn International Center for Conversion; Christoph Weller, University of Augsburg, Deputy Chair of the German Association for Peace and Conflict Studies as well as the initiative circle of the German Platform for Peaceful Conflict Management and the Weltfriedensdienst e.V. (WFD).
Contact:
Cornelia Heß
Tel.: ++49 (0)69 - 95 91 04 30
hess@hsfk.de