PRIF Review2024

Fortunately, we didn't move last year, as we simply wouldn't have had the time. The move of the institute from Frankfurt’s Bahnhofsviertel to the neighborhood of Sachsenhausen, located further south, was originally planned in 2024. However, the move was delayed and will now certainly – yes, definitely – take place in 2025.

But the delay also had its good side, leaving us with more time to focus on our actual work: Finding paths towards sustainable peace in what are still very difficult times. In the media, the Russian war in Ukraine and the conflict in Israel and Gaza continued to dominate coverage. This was also reflected in our work – even though it is important to us to also draw attention to the numerous other conflicts that are at risk of being forgotten.

The war in Gaza and Israel was increasingly associated with a polarized debate here in Germany – a topic that we took up and discussed at our annual conference and that remains on our minds. Another occasion for critical reflection on this conflict was the posthumous awarding of the Hessian Peace Prize 2023 to the Canadian-Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, which took place as part of a ceremony in July 2024. Silver’s son, Yonatan Zeigen, took part in the ceremony with a moving speech.

The ramp-up to the German parliamentary elections in the fall of the year was an opportunity for us to put the concept of peace, seemingly discredited during the political debate over how to end the war in Ukraine, at the center of a PRIF blog series and various media articles. The fact that this is neither a purely academic nor a German debate was subsequently demonstrated by the peace efforts of the re-elected US President Trump.

Even if Trump's re-election came as no surprise in the end, the speed with which he is now tearing down fundamental principles of the international order in his second presidency is startling. This is an area in which we have strengthened and expanded basic research with our LOEWE Research Group World Orders in Conflict, which we set up jointly with Goethe University. The group examines how a viable security and peace order could be shaped at European and global levels to productively address tensions and crises.

Another new research group is working on an equally pressing issue. As part of our Cluster for Natural and Technical Science Arms Control Research (CNTR), we set up the Research Group Science for Nuclear Diplomacy together with TU Darmstadt. The group develops novel techniques to verify compliance with nuclear arms control agreements using experimental physics and computational nuclear engineering.

The past year was once again one of intensive networking. Together with 16 other research institutions, we are a founding member of the Frankfurt Alliance, which hosted its first major science festival in the heart of the city in September. In the Leibniz Association, a new synthesis and transfer format with national visibility was launched with the Leibniz Labs. PRIF is represented in three of the labs with different thematic focuses.

Once again, we are pleased to report a number of personal successes in this annual review. The list of doctoral students who have successfully completed their doctorates would be too long to list here. You will find an overview as you browse through this issue. Thomas Reinhold and Hendrik Simon received prizes for their research work. Further details can be found in this year’s review as well. Daniel Mullis made it onto Zeit Online's best non-fiction list with his book on the rise of the right in times of crisis. Thorsten Gromes successfully completed his habilitation process. Malte Göttsche was appointed to a professorship at TU Darmstadt and Sarah Brockmeier-Large took over the management of our Berlin office.

But let's get back to the topic of moving. Although the physical move is still pending, we have already successfully completed the digital move to a new website. Following the rebranding process – including a new name and logo – in the previous year, we successfully completed another major communications project on schedule in 2024.

However, we have not only changed externally, but have also developed new transfer formats. The monitors and fact sheets from the CNTR and PrEval projects expand our range of targeted advice for policymakers and practitioners. These are publication formats that were preceded by a dialogue between research and practice embedded in the projects.

Dialogue is also the keyword for our work in the field of civic education. One highlight of the past year was the “Global House of Young Voices” project, a political summit of young people from Frankfurt's sister cities to mark the anniversary of the first German parliamentary assembly in St. Paul's Church. The themes of this international exchange were freedom, justice and democracy.

This sets out the topics that will continue to challenge and, above all, motivate us in 2025. Especially in times like these, it is important for us to engage our research in a committed dialogue with a wide variety of stakeholders, to carry out conflicts productively and to develop ideas for peace.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at PRIF who has contributed to this. We warmly invite you to join us in reflecting on another intensive year of peace and conflict research in Frankfurt with this annual review.