Hanne-Margret Birckenbach

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Hanne-Margret Birckenbach (born April 3, 1948 in Gelnhausen ) is a German political scientist and professor of European studies.

She studied German , philosophy , sociology and political science in Tübingen and Frankfurt am Main and received her doctorate in political science at the Free University of Berlin in 1984 with a thesis on the military service of young people . Then habilitated them at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University .

Between 2002 and 2012 she held the Jean Monnet Chair for “European Governance, European Political Integration, Integration and Comparative Studies at the Subnational Level, Political Sociology, Participation and Democratic Practices in Europe” at the Institute for Political Science at the University of Giessen .

Her research and teaching focus on European politics, especially with regard to Eastern and North-Eastern Europe , international organizations, the relationship between the EU and Russia , human rights policy , minority conflicts , peace and conflict research and conflict prevention.

Cooperation and active membership

To their works and works

Minority and Citizenship Policy

In her book Human Rights-Oriented Politics as a Field of Conflict in the Social World with a special focus on developments in Estonia and Latvia , Hanne-Margret Birckenbach particularly deals with minority and citizenship politics in Estonia and Latvia. The focus is on the CSCE human rights policy and the instruments of conflict prevention, in particular the “fact-finding” method is addressed here.

Fact finding

Fact-finding is a very important method in the area of ​​conflict management, which is particularly supported by Hanne-Margret Birckenbach. The reason for fact finding are human rights violations and conflicts that are before or during an escalation. Certain requirements must be met in order to be able to use this method. First of all, there must be a request from a conflict party, who then also agrees to the fact-finding mission. Furthermore, a team of experts must be put together that should be competent and international. The working techniques include researching conflict-relevant information on site, but also talks and interviews with conflict parties and those affected (government, opposition, representatives of minorities). The evaluation of documents also takes up a large part of this method of conflict processing, whereby a report must be created and the determined factors must be recorded in documentation. Formulating the interests of all conflict parties is also important in order to accelerate the resolution of the conflict. After the origin of the conflict, the subject of the conflict, the course of the conflict and the escalation risks have been assessed, proposals for conflict management can be formulated.

Conflict prevention

Research into the causes of war predicts an increasing burden of crises and wars in the world. According to Birckenbach, conflict prevention is a proposed solution to prevent this development. Preventive diplomacy is an important part of this method. Preventive diplomacy is a concept that is also applied in the political reality of international politics. Conflict prevention is defined by the goal, the means and the actors. The aim is to prevent violence. In general, conflict prevention is about influencing these conflicts in such a way that they do not swell so that sensible solutions can then be found. There are various means that are suitable for these solutions, these are mainly to be found in connection with dialogues, e.g. B. Negotiating, observing, informing, advising, inquiring, discussing. The actors are essentially international organizations, states and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Violence against women in war

During war, mass rape has become the common means for men to humiliate the enemy. Hanne-Margret Birckenbach tries to find an explanation for this phenomenon in the book Mass Rape - War Against Women and formulates solutions. The prerequisite for solving the problem is that women become aware of the resources that are available to them. In the war zones they can hardly free rape camps, but there are e.g. For example in Germany women who have a strong influence on politics, trade and education. According to Birckenbach, these means are used to break the double censorship: the censorship of war, which only allows messages that are functional to warfare to pass through, and the censorship of the male pattern of thought and politics that dictate a decision about war and peace ”. In addition, politicians can request that the issue of sexuality and war be the subject of disarmament and peace negotiations.

Hanne-Margret Birckenbach on peace research

“The constituent concept of peace research is not war, not history, not rule, not power, but peace. Without the concept of peace, that is, without theoretical reflection on the possibility of non-violent conflict resolution, practical knowledge remained stuck to the logic of violence and thus unrealistic in terms of peace policy. Peace researchers do not have to see themselves as pacifists, but for professional methodological reasons they have to develop a concrete idea of ​​peace. They need to know more, of course, and that is why their libraries also have books that deal with "other things." But do you also need an understanding of the gender category? "

“In peace research, the dominant view is that it is best to do without knowledge from gender studies. Gender researchers, on the other hand, argue that if the category »gender« is not taken into account, peace will not understand anything. Between these two poles are those scientists who argue that it is perhaps not mandatory, but methodologically useful, to classify gender studies as one of those disciplines with the help of which something can be discovered about the conditions of peace. "

Publications (selection)

  • With a guilty conscience: readiness for military service of young people; to empiricism d. psychosocial mediation by the military u. Society. Baden-Baden 1985 ISBN 3-7890-1122-3 .
  • Yearbook Peace: Conflicts - Disarmament - Peace Work , 7 vol. (1990 to 1997). In cooperation with the Working Group for Peace and Conflict Research, the Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution and the Swiss Peace Foundation. Munich: CH Beck Verlag (1989–1996), (together with U. Jäger and Christian Wellmann ). ISSN  0936-9872
  • Preventive diplomacy through fact finding: how international organizations review the conflict over citizenship in Estonia and Latvia. Münster: Lit 1997 ISBN 3-8258-2864-6 .
    • Translation into Russian: Rassledovanije faktov kak sredstvo preventivnoi diplomatii. Vzglyad mezhdunarodnikh organizatsii na konflikt po voprosu grazhdanstva v Estonii i Latvii . Moscow: Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, RAS, Conflict Management and Study Center 1998.
  • Half full or half empty? The OSCE Mission to Estonia and its Balance Sheet 1993-1999 . Flensburg: European Center for Minority Issues 2000.
  • Civil Society around the Baltic Rim - edited on occasion of the 10th Baltic Sea Parliamentarian Conference (BSPC) by order of the BSPC Standing Committee (Ed) . Kiel: SCHIFF 2001, (with Christian Wellmann).

swell

  • Alexandra Stiglmayer (Hrsg.): Mass rape war against women . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag.
  • Hanne-Margret Birckenbach: Preventive Dipolacy through Fact-Finding . In: Kiel writings on peace studies .
  • Peace Research, Church and Church Peace Movement . In: Hanne-Margret Birckenbaach (Hrsg.): Series of publications by the Working Group for Peace and Conflict Research .
  • Conflicts in World Society and Peace Strategies . In: Moltmann and Senghaas-Knobloch (eds.): Series of publications by the Working Group for Peace and Conflict Research .

literature

  • Ilse Lenz : The New Women's Movement in Germany. Farewell to the small difference . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-14729-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ UN Resolution 1820, adopted at the 5916th session of the Security Council on June 19, 2008
  2. ↑ Alexandra Stiglmayer: mass rape - war against women.
personal data
SURNAME Birckenbach, Hanne-Margret
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German political scientist
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Gelnhausen