FISCHER Martina

Martina Fischer is deputy director and senior researcher at the Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management in Berlin, Germany. She is co-editor of the Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation. She is Vice-Chair of the Board of the German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF). She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Free University in Berlin. She publishes on peacebuilding in South Eastern Europe; European peace and security policy; civil-military relations; training for civilian peacekeeping personnel; the potential of youth and linkages between peacebuilding and development strategies. She advises peace and development agencies - civil society initiatives as well as public sector organisations such as the German Development Agency (GTZ) - on conflict issues. Moreover she did consultancy for members of the German parliament, various German political parties and the European Parliament. She is member of the Working Group on Peace and Conflict Studies and the Advisory Council on Civil Conflict Prevention of the German Foreign Ministry.

Civil society in conflict transformation : ambivalence, potentials and challenges

> Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management

Civic engagement and the role of social actors within the framework of the nation state is widely accepted, in both politics and academia. The significance of civil society to international politics and in conflict settings is less agreed. The number of agencies engaged in international development policy, humanitarian aid, human rights protection and environmental policy has increased substantially over the last two decades. A similar development is witnessed in the field of conflict (...) read

date of on-line publication : 4 December 2006