Cooperation partners’ visit

In June 2019, HIIK had the honour to welcome representatives of the Africa Union, the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS), the GIZ and the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ecpdm) at the Bergheim Campus in Heidelberg. Both AU and IPSS use modified HIIK data for policy advice within the African Union, i.e. for the Continental Early Warning System (CEWS) and the annually published Impact Report on the African Union‘s Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). During our meeting we discussed different perspectives on conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as the use of HIIK intensities as a dependent variable. We would like to thank our colleagues from Addis and are looking forward to a fruitful cooperation in the future!

Counting the dead – a presentation by Thomas Tari

On July 11, HIIK had the honor to welcome Thomas Tari from SciencesPo Paris at the Bergheim Campus in Heidelberg. In his presentation „Counting The Dead“, Thomas introduced us to the different existing methodologies to count deaths and adressed fundamental questions: How – and why – do we quantify casualties, and classify them as such, compared to “normal deaths”?
These questions are of utmost importance for the work at HIIK.
In our every-day life, numbers on casualties are omnipresent.
Via news or social media, we receive information on casualties as a consequence of Ebola or of hurricanes such as in Haiti.
Conflict researchers might be especially attentive when news reports contain casualty numbers from conflicts all over the world.

Thank you so much, Thomas Tari for coming to Heidelberg, for the interesting presentation and the fruitful discussion!

Conflict Barometer 2018

We’re glad to announce the publishing date of the 27th version of our yearly outlet. On March 1st at 12 pm, the Conflict Barometer 2018 will be online! With this latest version, we continue our annual series of reports covering the dynamics of political conflicts worldwide.

HIIK members give a workshop on the Mexican drug war

In the context of an academic weekend in Würzburg organized by scholarship holders of The German Academic Scholarship Foundation and Max Weber-Programm Bayern, our members Maximilian Herrmann and Michael Hebeisen held a workshop on “The Fight for The White Gold – Drug Wars and Their Consequences” in which they shared their research about actors, developments and strategies in the Mexican drug war. The participants gained insights in different aspects of the conflict and developed possible policy solutions.
In 2017, the country’s homicide rate reached its 20-year high, influenced by the drug-related conflicts in the country. Additionally, 2017 was marked by the highest number of fatalities since the beginning of the conflict in 2006.

The HIIK at the Paris Peace Forum

As member of the Board, Vincent Stüber represented the HIIK at an event on food security organized by Action contre la Faim, the World Food Programme (WFP), and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in the course of the Paris Peace Forum 2018. The forum has been initiated by the French President Emmanuel Macron in oder to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

In the fishbowl format with Action contre la Faim’s CEO Véronique Andrieux and the French journalist Jean-Marc Illouz, the panelists discussed the importance of the UN Security Council’s resolution 2417 (2018) on the link between food security and conflicts and future avenues to reduce food insecurity. Vincent contributed analyses of the relation between food security and vicious cycles of violence.

We would like to thank Action contre la Faim for their invitation and the perfect organization of the event on this very important topic. Fora like this constitute a very valuable opportunity for exchange between research institutes such as the HIIK and organizations working in the field such as Action contre la Faim.

Conflict Barometer 2017

The global conflict panorama in 2017 was characterized by discontinuity and change. Not only did the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK) record numerous newly-sparked and ended conflicts, but the dynamics within single, sometimes longstanding conflicts was also marked by major changes.

With its new Conflict Barometer 2017, HIIK presents current data and analysis on the global conflicts of the past year. According to its methodology, HIIK recorded a total number of 222 violent conflicts, five fewer than in the previous year. While the number of wars (20) increased by two, the number of limited wars (16) decreased by four. Overall, the HIIK recorded 385 violent and nonviolent conflicts worldwide in 2017, excluding the currently 22 inactive but still potential conflicts.

Six new conflicts were observed in Ethiopia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Iraq, as well as Qatar on the one hand and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates on the other hand.

Conflict Barometer 2017 Download

Release of the 2017 Conflict Barometer

The HIIK will publish its new data and analyses on political conflicts for the year 2017 on February 28, 2018!

Save the date, visit us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@HIIK_eV)

Welcome to the HIIK’s new website!

Welcome to the HIIK’s relaunched website! Over the past few months we have been busy making our website better and easier to navigate. We have also added a couple of new features – particularly our new conflict database which allows you to directly access and filter all data and reports of the Conflict Barometer online.

Try it out right now: Conflict Database

In the coming weeks more and more content will be updated and new features will be added to the website, so stay tuned!