International Conflict Analysis

The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine brought home once again just how vulnerable peace in Europe really is. It also shined a light on the fact that the Left needs more concrete answers to the question of how a stable, positive peace could be realized and what a path to a cooperative security policy and disarmament might look like.

The war in Ukraine did not come out of nowhere – its roots can be traced back to a world system dominated by the interests of power and profits, more often than not reinforced with violence. Or, in the words of French socialist Jean Jaurès: “Capitalism carries war within it, just like clouds carry rain.”

At the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, we are not satisfied with merely condemning war. We strive to analyse it, to understand its causes, and develop political and social proposals for its resolution. Our International Conflict Analysis programme analyses current conflicts in the world and explores opportunities for civil crisis prevention and conflict management.

Our current focus is, of course, the war in Ukraine, but the potential for escalation around Taiwan or the ongoing armed conflicts in Yemen or Mali are also on our agenda. New initiatives for global disarmament are also part of our work, such as the Global Campaign on Military Spending, which seeks to convince all countries to simultaneously reduce their military budgets by 10 percent and investment that money in something that benefits everyone, such as the social sector or fighting climate change.

The firm conviction of “Never again to war, never again to militarism” that prevailed in the German public for decades has faltered in recent months. The fear that the current war will be followed by the next one and the one after that is very real. The decision to take up arms, rearm, or supply weapons to Ukraine thus appears like an obvious choice at first glance – but there are, in fact, alternatives. After all, those who only think of war in military terms have already lost.

View the War and Peace Dossier