Mareike Schomerus

Experience Keywords

Lord''s Resistance Army (LRA); conflict resolution; human security; humanitarian aid; media; peace processes; peacebuilding; peacemaking; small arms; violent conflict

Research Summary

I work on violent conflict and the myriad reasons why violence continues. Several questions are important to me: Why does violence continue? What are the motivations of actors involved in conflict? What role do local, national and international interventions play? What is the best way to achieve security for civilian populations? And in addition to creating a peaceful environment, what is needed to make peace and create an environment of human security? To acknowledge the broad range of elements that are part of peace, I aim to look at violence from a holistic angle. This means that I attempt to understand both the motivations of those who commit violence and the context in which violence occurs. Inevitably, this means that I examine social, political and economic processes, including processes of conflict resolution. In some cases, conflict resolution attempts create a situation in which the continuation of the conflict still remains the more viable choice for one or several conflict parties. This is particularly striking when analyzing peace processes that fail. At which point and why does a peace process become a continuation of the violent conflict?

Research Countries

South Sudan; Uganda

Languages

French [Spoken: Basic, Written: N/A]; German [Spoken: Fluent, Written: Fluent]