Marike Blunck, Senior Researcher
Marike Blunck, scholar-practitioner in the field of peace mediation and political dialogue, worked as senior researcher at the Center for Peace Mediation.
Marike has worked extensively on a practice-orientated research project on National Dialogues for the Berghof Foundation, including co-authoring a Handbook on National Dialogues aimed at conflict stakeholders, peacebuilding practitioners and the diplomatic community (in cooperation with swisspeace and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office). She also conducted extensive research on Nepal’s peace process and the country’s peace and governance structure as Visiting Fellow with the Berghof Foundation. Before that, she lived in Nepal working at the conflict prevention programme (CPP) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), mainly on track II dialogue processes and conflict sensitivity. Focusing on conflict transformation activities at the community level, she coordinated projects of the Civil Peace Service in Nepal and Myanmar for the grassroots organisation KURVE Wustrow. Initially, she supported advocacy efforts on conflict-related crisis for the UK-based organisation Crisis Action. Marike was a Mercator Fellow on International Affairs in 2012/13 and received the Quaker Peaceworker stipend in 2010/11. She is a trained mediator and holds a MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and a BA in International Relations from Sussex University.
At the Center for Peace Mediation she worked in the research and transfer project with the Unit S03 | Crisis Prevention, Stabilisation and Peacebuilding at the German Federal Foreign Office where she held an embedded researcher position within its Peace Mediation Team.
Marike has worked extensively on a practice-orientated research project on National Dialogues for the Berghof Foundation, including co-authoring a Handbook on National Dialogues aimed at conflict stakeholders, peacebuilding practitioners and the diplomatic community (in cooperation with swisspeace and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office). She also conducted extensive research on Nepal’s peace process and the country’s peace and governance structure as Visiting Fellow with the Berghof Foundation. Before that, she lived in Nepal working at the conflict prevention programme (CPP) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), mainly on track II dialogue processes and conflict sensitivity. Focusing on conflict transformation activities at the community level, she coordinated projects of the Civil Peace Service in Nepal and Myanmar for the grassroots organisation KURVE Wustrow. Initially, she supported advocacy efforts on conflict-related crisis for the UK-based organisation Crisis Action. Marike was a Mercator Fellow on International Affairs in 2012/13 and received the Quaker Peaceworker stipend in 2010/11. She is a trained mediator and holds a MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and a BA in International Relations from Sussex University.
At the Center for Peace Mediation she worked in the research and transfer project with the Unit S03 | Crisis Prevention, Stabilisation and Peacebuilding at the German Federal Foreign Office where she held an embedded researcher position within its Peace Mediation Team.
Areas of Expertise
Conflict transformation; political dialogue; peace mediation
Publications
- Blunck, Marike et al (2017): National Dialogue Handbook. Berghof Foundation
- Blunck, Marike (2014): Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Nepal’s Road Ahead After the Second Constituent Assembly Elections. Policy Brief. Berghof Foundation
- Blunck, Marike (2013): Polarisierung und Machtkämpfe: den radikalen Maoisten in Nepal kommt eine Schlüsselrolle zu. In: IP - Internationale Politik. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik (DGAP)
