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Career Paths in Peace and Conflict Studies

Peace and conflict studies is one of the modern melting pot degree programs in which the perspectives, expertise, and methodologies of a wide variety of disciplines come together to tackle a significant, societally-relevant task.

Collectively, the individual fields of activity in Peace and Conflict Research are as follows: 

Research
Political Communications and Public Relations
Political Will Formation
Consulting, Communications, Mediation
Peace Management
Organization and Administration
Support, Assistance, Assessment
International Exchange and Cooperation

What is a conflict? When and where do conflicts arise? How are they resolved? What happens if they are not resolved but suppressed? How, where, and when do conflicts escalate? When does a conflict become a “war” – only when it is “declared”? 

What attitudes, actions, and agreements counteract this? Is peace merely the absence of war? How does peace arise, how can it be maintained or preserved? What helps to preserve peace? What is a peace treaty? What processes influence the peace treaty? What overarching political, legal, and economic systems stabilize peace? Can peace be “exported”?

The major theoretical approaches of action theory, communication theory, systems theory, and political economics can be used to answer these and similar questions. However, questions of motivation, attitudes, trauma, legal foundations, and individual and collective decision-making also come into play here. That is why this field brings a diverse range of people to the table: experts from the political and social sciences, education and educational sciences, psychology, law, and economics. 

Even though a master’s degree already provides a strong path in a particular direction, graduates of Peace and Conflict Studies can move relatively freely within both general and specific fields of activity of the humanities and social sciences.

For a successful career start, it can be useful to acquire in-depth and certified knowledge of the application-oriented “tools” of Peace and Conflict Studies: ranging from nonviolent communication to mediation to international project management.

This information is based on information provided by the BERUFENET of the German Federal Employment Agency and surveys conducted with graduates of Marburg University. We would like to thank Edgar Losse from the Marburg branch of the Federal Employment Agency for the suggestions and support.