The UGR’s Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies was founded by a group of teachers who were deeply concerned by the fundamental importance of promoting research in peace and conflict studies. The Institute was established with a clear objective in mind: to improve society’s understanding of the origins and causes of violence, with a view to exploring alternative socio-political and educational models designed to tackle these causes.
In order to implement these alternative models, we strive continuously to promote national and international cooperation, encourage respect for human rights, and foment the material and social conditions necessary to achieve long-lasting peace.
Since its founding, the Institute has taken an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach, allowing researchers to explore the complex realities of conflict and peace from an array of multidimensional perspectives.
Our primary objective is to promote a culture of peace, a concept which we construe in much broader terms than the mere absence of war. Rather, at the Institute, we view peace as the attainment of the conditions which are essential for sustainable human development and the fulfilment of basic human needs. This construal of peace runs parallel to the broad construal of violence which we employ at the Institute, as those conditions which hinder human development.
We conduct research in 7 broad areas:
-
Conflict analysis
-
Theory and history of peace
-
Education and peace
-
Religion, culture, and peace
-
Science and technology
-
Gender and peace
-
Human rights and development
We offer researchers and staff at the Institute world-class training, thus fostering their personal and professional development. In particular, we provide them with the methodological, theoretical, and practical support necessary to understand and target the causes of violence on a case by case basis, propose solutions, and evaluate the effectiveness of these solutions. We also create forums in order to facilitate healthy debates regarding key topics within the field of conflict and peace studies.
At the Institute, we have a clear social vocation, providing specialist consultancy services to institutions and organisations which require our assistance. We also act as mediators in negotiation processes.
To learn more about our research institute, and find out more about of research groups, projects, and current activities, please visit The Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies Homepage.
