Berghof Foundation: 50 years of conflict transformation

The Berghof
Handbook
for Conflict
Transformation
As the Berghof Foundation turns 50, its publication of
longest standing looks back at its own anniversary:
2021 marks 20 years since the first articles were
published in the Berghof Handbook for Conflict
Transformation. The web-based knowledge platform
has grown, over the years, into a globally recognised
and widely acclaimed one-stop shop for innovative
knowledge and critical/constructive debate on how to
turn conflict transformation from theory into practice.
Today, the continually expanding free online
platform hosts nearly 150 articles (56 of which are
in English, the remaining being translations into
Arabic, German, Tamil, Russian, Sinhala, Spanish
and Turkish). Key works are captured in two edited
volumes (Transforming Ethnopolitical Conflict
and Advancing Conflict Transformation, Berghof
Handbook I and II). In addition, there is the Berghof
Handbook Dialogue Series with 13 issues so far —
exchanges between scholars and practitioners from
different disciplines and world regions on some
of the thorniest issues and dilemmas in conflict
transformation and peacebuilding. They range from
”
[It] will be looked
back upon thirty
years from now as a
foundational account
of the field. I plan to
keep it close at hand.
John Paul Lederach
Peace and Conflict Impact Assessment (Issue no. 1)
to, most recently, Transforming Violent Extremism
(Issue no. 13).
At its inception, the Handbook benefited
from generous funding from the German Federal
Ministry of Education and Research in the late 1990s.
In later years, indeed decades, the continuation
of the Handbook has been one of the investments
made by the Berghof Foundation from its core funds
in response to unbroken demand. Its guiding idea
remains to present the evolving state of the art in
conflict transformation and peacebuilding in one
place — accessible and informative for scholars,
students, practitioners and policy-makers in search
of conceptual frameworks, impact stories and
lessons learned from the field.
The impact of this flagship publication,
both in terms of providing a valuable service to
peacebuilders around the world and in putting
the Berghof Foundation and its predecessor
institutes firmly on the map of international conflict
transformation, is evident both anecdotally and in
numbers. Download numbers remain high, averaging
well over 150,000 per year, and not counting the
numerous sister sites where Berghof Handbook
articles are available. “Berghof publications continue
to journey with me wherever I go,” writes one of
our previous authors a good 10 years after first
publishing with us. Indeed, we have happened to
come across the blue books on shelves and in training
courses as far afield as South Sudan, Afghanistan
and India. Handbook articles appear on course
syllabi and reading lists at many universities and
across numerous disciplines. Indeed, one Peace
Studies course in Germany was entirely constructed
around the Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series, with
students’ assignments being to produce additional
commentaries on the content of the series.
Reviews throughout the years attest that
the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation
“truly manages to fill a gap connecting theory
with practice” and “systematically charts and
consolidates our knowledge.” It has been called “very
productive” and “skilfully crafted.” In his foreword
to the second print edition, the doyen of conflict
transformation John Paul Lederach wrote that it “has
integrated three decades of practice and theory and
will be looked back upon thirty years from now as
a foundational account of the field. I plan to keep it
close at hand.”
With such encouragement from scholars
and practitioners alike, we embark into our sixth
decade with unwavering commitment. New or ever
more pressing strategic “nexus” topics present
themselves for exploration: How will conflict
transformation adapt to climate change conditions?
What distinguishes transformative approaches
to supporting good governance and tackling
corruption? How can inclusive historical narratives
be forged amidst contestation and polarisation?
How will the Western proponents of peacebuilding
manage to ‘bring peacebuilding home’ to their own
communities? What rights-based system(s) of order
will emerge from what, in 2021, looks like the ashes
of many old certainties and an emerging multi-polar
world disorder, and how will conflict transformation
work in this new context?
2001–present
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