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PRIF's new research program started in 2018. For at least the next five years the ambivalent relationship of "Coercion and Peace" will provide the framework for a significant part of the research conducted at the institute. Different research groups will focus on the conditions, forms, effects and kinds of legitimation that characterize coercion to peace as well as coercion in peace. The topic is not merely of academic relevance. By studying the complex ways in which coercion and peace relate to each other the researchers aim at shedding light on the current plight of the international order and its consequences for international and intra­state conflict. The present report outlines the new research program. It identifies overarching questions, crucial conceptual clarifications, and important analytical distinctions, as well as research gaps and research topics.

PRIF's new research program started in 2018. For at least the next five years the ambi­valent relation­ship of "Coercion and Peace" will provide the frame­work for a signifi­cant part of the research con­ducted at the institute. Different research groups will focus on the con­ditions, forms, effects and kinds of legiti­mation that character­ize coercion to peace as well as coercion in peace. The topic is not merely of aca­demic rele­vance. By studying the complex ways in which coercion and peace relate to each other the re­searchers aim at shed­ding light on the current plight of the inter­national order and its conse­quences for inter­national and intra­state conflict. The present report out­lines the new research program. It identifies over­arching questions, crucial con­ceptual clari­fications, and impor­tant analytical dis­tinctions, as well as research gaps and research topics.

On 21st February 2023, the Chinese Foreign Ministry released its concept for a "Global Security Initiative", a white paper outlining the country's proposed solution to challenges across traditional and non-traditional security issues. While the content mostly amounts to a restatement of long-standing principles and pooling of existing activities under a new label, its packaging as a "global initiative" should be seen as a statement of intent, claiming a much greater role in international politics. The sketched Chinese security agenda differs significantly from that of Western powers in both its principles and practices, making this field a new arena of competition between both sides.

In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, chemical and biological weapons have once again attracted international attention due to disinformation efforts on the part of Russian officials. International forums which oversee the ban on these weapons are being used to accuse Ukraine and its allies of violating their legal obligations. Many of Russia's accusations regarding chemical weapons resemble the patterns of deception observed in the past, while disinformation on biological weapons is displaying somewhat novel characteristics. Yet, there are tangible ways of counteracting such disinformation, thereby protecting the ban on chemical and biological weapons.

Antarctic diplomacy has famously shielded the continent of peace, science, and environmental protection from outside conflict and war. This "exceptionalism" is now being tested by Russia's war against Ukraine and the belief that international strategic competition between great powers is spilling over into the Antarctic. In order to keep the Antarctic exceptional, however, it would be wise to refocus on what has made Antarctic diplomacy so successful in the first place: cooperation in order to compete, or "co-opetition."

Time and again, modern technology has enhanced arms control - with satellites, surveillance planes or more potent sensory equipment – to detect traces of forbidden substances. More recently, uncrewed vehicles found their way into the arsenals of arms control inspectors, enhancing verification. A very promising yet more difficult application will be to make use of artificial intelligence (AI) in arms control. However, many people have mixed emotions when it comes to AI, and exaggerated hopes as well as unjustified fears dominate the debate. The aim of this paper is to dispel reservations and, based on small projects, show how AI can be used in a reasonable way to enhance arms control and verification without getting caught up in hype.

Since June 30, Rodrigo Duterte's presidency has been a thing of the past. This Spotlight asks why police forces in the Philippines were so willing to carry out the killing of drug personalities at Duterte's behest in 2016 and what that may mean for the future. I argue that the inability to successfully bring suspects to justice and the resulting damage to the police's self-­image as a potent guardian of peace and order foster vigilante activities by police where a political and social environ­ment exists that legitimizes such a strategy of violent crime control.

Since the outbreak of the war in Yemen in 2015, the state has seen a growing influx in the supply of weapons. These weapons are both legally and illegally provided by regional and international powers to all major factions of the conflict. While arms transfers and their effects on the conflict in Yemen have received considerable attention, a lesser known fact is that weapons are increasingly circulating between Yemen, Somalia and Djibouti - the three states adjoining the Gulf of Aden. Against this background, this text shines the spotlight on weapons flows dynamics in a highly militarized region.

Following its parliamentary elections in October 2020, Kyrgyzstan found itself facing post-election protests and a political crisis which resulted in a new political landscape. On 10 January 2021, Kyrgyz citizens voted for a new president and a fast-tracked constitutional reform to return to a presidential system. Although the protests in October 2020 resulted in political turnover, their momentum is currently being used to concentrate power in the hands of the president. Autocratic tendencies, corruption scandals, and socioeconomic grievances, which were further aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic, have marked recent developments in Kyrgyzstan.

The African Union's (AU) peacebuilding efforts in The Gambia reflect the organization's growing responsibility in this field. From 2018 to 2020, the AU deployed the African Union Technical Support Team to The Gambia (AUTSTG). Drawing on interviews and document and media analyses in 2020/2021, this PRIF Spotlight examines this novel mode of engagement and points out an emerging dilemma: The AUTSTG was successful as a technical and pragmatic intervention. However, this only came at the expense of supporting long-term political processes and thus undermined the AU's holistic peacebuilding policy.

The killing of political opponents is an established practice in the Philippines, to which several dozen office­holders fall victim each year and which undermines democracy. In this report, Peter Kreuzer presents a detailed data set on this type of violence and answers the questions why the practice is so wide­spread and why it hardly ever provokes public debate. The analysis focuses on the peace covenant, a central means of symbolic politics to contain violence, but one that uninten­tionally naturalizes it.

The killing of political opponents is an established practice in the Philippines, to which several dozen office­holders fall victim each year and which undermines democracy. In this report, Peter Kreuzer presents a detailed data set on this type of violence and answers the questions why the practice is so wide­spread and why it hardly ever provokes public debate. The analysis focuses on the peace covenant, a central means of symbolic politics to contain violence, but one that uninten­tionally naturalizes it.

The German government claims to pursue a restrictive arms export policy. Indeed, there are ample laws, provisions and international agreements for regulating the trade of weapons, other military equipment and product licences. However, this dense and complicated web of norms has not led to a responsible practice of German arms trade. Taking a look back over the past three decades, this report refers to numerous examples in which Germany grants licences and exports weapons of war and military equipment to countries that violate international humanitarian law in armed conflicts, but also to countries that severely violate the human rights of their citizens and to regions of tensions. The author suggests the adoption of an arms export control law in order to turn the existing web of norms into a more effective legal basis.

An essential prerequisite for successful peacebuilding is the involvement of local actors. This is why the German Civil Peace Service (CPS) focuses on cooperation with local partners. However, the interaction between local and international peace workers is often conflict-ridden. Using empirical examples from Germany, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the author analyzes the challenges faced by peacebuilding organizations when working closely with local actors. To address the major problem of power asymmetries, she recommends thinking outside the box and using the concept of productive friction.