Friedenswissenschaftliche Lehre im Wandel: Aus der Nische in den Boom? - Bedingungen und Bedeutungen der Etablierung friedenswissenschaftlicher Master-Studiengänge

The following paper examines the causes and factors which in recent years have led to the establishment of several peace studies courses in Germany and discusses the impacts and consequences of this development. First of all, the paper describes the formation of peace teaching from the 1970s on. At this time, it was conducted only by some professors and from the 1980s on within academic circles of the peace movement. However, it was not structurally fixed at the universities. In the main section, the paper analyses the development of peace studies courses from the mid-1990s. Within this process, two key factors are stressed: the nationwide implementation of the two-stage study structure within the framework of the Bologna Process on the one hand, and the stepwise and long lasting strategic development of teaching locations through the utilization of political and scientific opportunity structures on the other hand. Further factors are presented: After the end of the Cold War, the nationwide policy to support peace studies improved, peace studies were focusing on new conflicts and suitable labor markets for graduates emerged. The paper then brings forward the argument that within the framework of study programs the objectives, contents, methods and organization of learning and teaching peace were curricularly justified and fixed for the first time. It is shown that the organizational institutionalization of teaching peace in the form of study programs implies a higher level of institutionalization compared to the personal-dependent institutionalization of the past. Once established, study programs function relatively independent from subjective and political interests.