Tough Choices Cluster: Dilemmas and Decisions in Peacemaking
​
​

Directors​ 
Dr. Anne Holper (previously Kraus), Europa-Universität Viadrina
Dr. Simon Mason, ETH Zurich

Researchers
Owen Frazer, ETH Zurich
Dr. Sara Hellmüller, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Dr. Anne Holper, Europa-Universität Viadrina
Prof. Dr. Lars Kirchhoff, Europa-Universität Viadrina
Dr. Tatiana Kyselova, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Dr. Simon Mason, ETH Zurich
Julia Palmiano Federer, swisspeace
Valerie Sticher, ETH Zurich

Management
Dr. Christian Hochmuth

Internal Partners
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Neyer, Europa-Universität Viadrina

​Funding
Viadrina B/ORDERS IN MOTION Seed Money, 2018-2019
What sacrifices are we ready to make in the name of peace? For instance, should peacemakers support local ceasefires in Syria to save thousands of lives in the short term, even if this might shift the battlefield to new places, producing many more victims in the long run? Should they bring radical religious leaders together who may agree to peace, but at the cost of gender equality? Should peacemakers engage with “terrorists” because they have the power to stop the violence, even if this indirectly endorses their violent tactics?
​
​Torn between two imperatives that seem to be equally compulsory but mutually exclusive, peacemakers often face such tough choices between multiple options that – even with the best of intentions – all risk doing harm. Yet, despite the enormous responsibilities carried by mediators and the harm potentially caused by their decisions, the dilemmas they face receive scant attention in the academic and policy literature. There is also yet no hands-on guidance for peacemakers on how to practically manage these dilemmas.
The interdisciplinary Tough Choices Cluster aims to improve the way practitioners make decisions in such dilemma situations by developing a Tough Choices Framework for analyzing and guiding those decisions.

​In 2018 and 2019, the prototype of framework was developed and tested in various empirical settings. As both interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners of the peacemaking field, the participating researchers built the framework on dilemma theories and methodologies from various disciplines as well as on first hand experiences and observations from Columbia, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Thailand and Ukraine.​
​The joint foci in this research process were: 1) the anatomy of peacemaking dilemmas; 2) the strategies that peacemaking actors already attempt and could additionally explore to deal with these dilemmas; 3) the normative, technical and political reference frames that shape the perception of the dilemma and decision-making process; and 4) the decisions made and their effects as seen from the perspectives of parties, other affected actors and peacemakers.

​In addition to developing the framework, special emphasis was given to the blurred and dynamically shifting, but often highly contested normative boundaries of what is and what is not acceptable (´red lines`) when making trade-offs to overcome a dilemma. 
​
​In 2020, the prototype of the Tough Choices Framework will be finalized, published and disseminated in close cooperation between practitioners, policy makers and researchers from relevant disciplines such as Psychology, Ethics, and Law. 
Picture
The cluster follows an action research approach that bridges dilemma theory and methodology from various disciplines with peacemaking practice. The entire research process, from the initial testing of assumptions over the testing of dilemma strategies to the dissemination of outputs, is designed as a continuous feedback spiral between research and practice. This approach ensures the relevance, validity and usability of outputs and enables to close the gap between the rich experiential and theoretical knowledge that is available in the field and the actual decision-making of individual actors.
Publications & Resources
Events​​ ​​​
​Links