News

The Council of the European Union has appointed Cornelia Taylor as the new Head of Mission of the EU Advisory Mission Ukraine (EUAM Ukraine) and Kirsten Joppe as the new Head of Mission of the EU Partnership Mission in the Republic of Moldova (EUPM Moldova). Both previously served in different roles as ZIF secondees.

The ZIF Supervisory Board convened in Berlin on June 24, 2026, for its regular annual meeting. The meeting focused on the 2025 annual financial statements and developments at ZIF during the past fiscal year.

On 11 June 2026, the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, and the Federal Ministry of Defence honored the commitment of 2,096 German experts and leaders serving in international peace operations on the occasion of the Day of the Peacekeeper. Three civilian experts, three police officers, and three soldiers were recognized for their service.

How can we reform the multilateral system, make it fit for the future, and thereby regain the trust of nation-states and the public? This was the central theme of this year’s meeting of the ZIF’s high-level International Advisory Board in mid-June.

Our ZIF Annual Report 2025 provides a concise and visually engaging overview of our work and activities over the past year—from publications and secondments to training courses and conferences. It highlights the impact of our work and that of our secondees at both the national and international levels, while placing key developments in the fields of peace and security into context.

Joint statement by Folke Bernadotte Academy (Sweden), CMC Finland and ZIF.

Our Team and Conflict Management Training helps mission leadership build effective teams in challenging operational environments.

ZIF brings together UN member states, the EU, AU and experts to debate opportunities and risks of coalitions in peace operations.

The discussions and a hearing before the EU Committee focused on civilian crisis prevention, the impact of hybrid threats, and the role of the EU mission in Armenia.

ZIF has developed a specialised training programme in collaboration with and for the EU Mission in Armenia to provide staff with training in conversation techniques. Following several sessions, the ZIF training team has now trained trainers from the Mission.

ZIF welcomed a delegation of approximately 30 high-ranking officers from the Kenyan National Defence College. The visit focused on geopolitical developments, the future of peacekeeping missions, and current security policy challenges.

Starting today and until April 15, 2026, qualified and interested civilian experts can apply online to join our personnel pool for peace missions and humanitarian aid. Membership in our ZIF Expert Pool is usually a prerequisite for secondment (deployment) to a mission.

At the Munich Security Conference, ZIF and SIPRI held a joint side event to discuss the future of international crisis management amid financial and geopolitical tensions. Experts from politics, multilateral organisations and conflict-affected states emphasised the importance of effective multilateral structures, new partnerships and local expertise.

What crises and conflicts will shape international politics in 2026? ZIF addressed this question at the event ‘Headlines Before They Happen’ in the German Bundestag. Together with several members of the Bundestag and around 40 staff members from MPs' offices and parliamentary groups, ZIF experts discussed international developments and their significance for German foreign and security policy.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will relocate key functions from its headquarters in New York to Bonn over the next two years. Up to 300 employees are expected to work at the UN site in Bonn in the future. The decision underscores Bonn's growing importance as a location for international cooperation.

Partnerships are key. That is why ZIF Managing Director Dr. Astrid Irrgang travelled to Vienna at the beginning of the year to meet with the new Secretary General of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Feridun H. Sinirlioğlu, Germany's Permanent Representative, Ambassador Susanne Schütz, and some of our seconded civilian experts at the organisation's headquarters there.

A new third-party funded project in the field of peace mediation and peacebuilding started at the beginning of the year. With this, we continue our long-standing work in the field of mediation support and expand it to include cross-cutting themes of peacebuilding, in order to strengthen holistic conflict management.

Former interns and student employees network in the ZIF Alumni Network (ZIA). We invited this now high-caliber network to the first “ZIA Talk” and, together with some of its members, created an exciting hybrid discussion format.

The Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF) welcomed police officers from UN missions and national police authorities to an intensive workshop in Berlin. The event was organized in close cooperation with the United Nations Department of Peace Operations and focused on defining criteria for success in joint operations between UN police forces and their national counterparts. 

Last week, a particularly practice-oriented regional training course on improving humanitarian access took place in Amman, the capital of Jordan. It was organized and conducted by the Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF) in cooperation with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).