News

For us, the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda has been a source of motivation, a framework for action, and a guiding principle since it came into force. By sending civilian experts on peace missions and to multilateral organizations, and through targeted knowledge transfer and political consulting, we can actively contribute to its implementation.

German civil expert Lena Ellen Becker has been nominated for the UN Women Trailblazer Award for Justice and Correction Officers 2025. She is currently seconded by ZIF and the German Foreign Office to the UN Mission in South Sudan, where she is particularly committed to promoting justice in rural areas and the legal participation of women. 

During her visit to Berlin, Maria Telalian, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), came to the ZIF for talks on election observation, democratization efforts and international crisis resolution. 

Partners and members of the EU Training Initiative (EUTI) met for a kickoff meeting in Brussels to start EUTI's ambitious work. 15 civilian, police, and military training institutions all over Europe, including ZIF, are coordinating their efforts to offer needs-based, high-quality, up-to-date, and Europe-wide standardized training courses.

We are broadening our portfolio of interesting secondment options with the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) and can now contribute expertise from Germany to the UN's global security management.

From 1 to 28 August 2025, we are opening our personnel pool for the area of peace operations expertise. 

‘Strengthening humanitarian response capacities worldwide’ is the title of the annual report and also the guiding principle of the Standby Partnership Network, which comprises various international and national organisations that provide experts for UN partner organisations for humanitarian crisis response at short notice. 

In our ZIF XChange format, we discussed how humanitarian aid can still be implemented under difficult budgetary conditions and what new approaches and, if necessary, alliances are needed.

ZIF invited the heads of UN peace operations to an SRSG Breakfast on strategic communication, as disinformation and hybrid threats are increasingly jeopardizing work in conflict zones.

80 years ago in San Francisco, on June 26, 1945, almost 50 states signed the founding document of the United Nations, the UN Charter. "Never again" was the guiding principle of this organization - shortly after the end of the Second World War. Never again should a war of this magnitude devastate the world. With its principles and obligations, the Charter laid the foundations for a multilateral world order.

For the 12th time now, the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Ministry of Defence, together with ZIF, have honoured their personnel in international crisis management missions and peace operations. On 3 June, the MoI invited three civilian experts, three police officers and three soldiers of the Bundeswehr to the Konzerthaus at Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt to receive awards on behalf of around 1,200 Germans in multilateral missions and institutions.

The ZIF Annual Report 2024 is now online. It provides compact and entertaining information about our priorities and activities of the past year - and how we contribute to Germany's foreign policy. We also provide background information and classification on the key challenges we face. In infographics, we have prepared impressive figures from the field of peace and security worldwide, accompanied by images from missions and real-life examples.

In the run-up to the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial in Berlin in mid-May, more than 60 experts deliver political recommendations for the future of peace operations, compiled and published by the Global Alliance for Peace Operations, which ZIF co-founded.

We are excited to announce the launch of the Global Alliance for Peace Operations – a collective endeavour of more than 50 leading think tanks, research institutes and civil society organizations working on UN and regional approaches to peace operations.

At the beginning of April, ZIF was part of a larger German delegation in Brussels to exchange ideas with EU member states as part of the Civilian CSDP Compact.

Together with Diplomacy by Networking and the International Diplomatic Academy of the Federal Foreign Office, ZIF hosted a high-level ZIF Xchange to discuss the challenges and opportunities of peace mediation in a changing geopolitical landscape. 

We introduced and discussed our new handbook Masculinities, Conflict and Peacebuilding in a virtual launch on March 13. The editors and authors examine the role of masculinities in conflicts and peace processes. During the discussion with international experts, including seconded personnel, it became clear that peace processes can only be successful and sustainably effective if they take concepts of masculinity into account.

Together with SIPRI, ZIF designed one of the official side events of MSC 2025 - on “Bypassing Geopolitical Blockages: How to Regionalize Crisis Management”. ZIF experts also took on moderation roles in the MSC's ongoing programme. The current ZIF study ‘5 Trends for Peace Operations’ was also included in the MSC report.

ZIF recently hosted two ZIF XChange Space formats, bringing together practictioners, researchers and decision-makers on international crisis management. Central topics this time were the political situation in the Middle East and the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.

The successful cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme continues - ZIF continues to provide civilian experts for UNDP in conflict areas as part of Germany’s contribution to international development.