Research Topics

The most important task of TraCe is research.

Research means:

Experts study a specific topic.

They want to discover something new.

TraCe does research on different topics.

The main topic is political violence.

Political violence means:

Violence is used to achieve a political goal.

We now describe some research topics.

A civil war is a war in a country.

Different groups in the country fight each other.

Or a group in the country fights against the government.

Other countries can take part too.

Or groups from other countries.

For example, we examine:

• Why do other countries take part in civil wars more and more?

• What happens to the civil wars when other countries take part?

Our world is always changing.

There is new technology.

For example:

More and more people are using mobile phones and social media.

Even in war.

Climate change is also changing the environment.

For example:

In some countries, it is becoming much hotter than before.

Or there is not enough water and other raw materials.

This often causes arguments about these resources.

Sometimes, it even results in war.

For example, we examine:

• How is the new technology used in wars?

• How do the arguments about raw materials lead to political violence?

Activists are people who stand up for something.

For example, for human rights. 

Or for the environment. 

They are often threatened or attacked.

For example, we examine:

• How are people threatened and attacked?

• How do people deal with this?

In an international organization, several countries work together.

An example of an international organization is:

the United Nations, or UN for short.

The goal of the UN is: to help prevent wars.

At the moment, this is not working very well.

For example, we examine:

• What has changed?

• How can we make these organizations stronger?

There is a ban on violence for all countries.

Everyone must follow these rules.

But not all countries or groups do that.

Some countries or groups even think violence is normal.

For example, we examine:

• What are the different views on the question:

  When is violence allowed?

• How can organizations prevent violence?

A memory culture is the way 

a country deals with its past.

For example:

There is a memorial for a war.

For example, we examine:

• How do people in a country talk about past political violence?

• How does a country remember past political violence? 

• Why do countries remember some cases of political violence but not others?

Colonialism means:

European countries once treated people in other countries badly.

They took their land and resources.

For example, countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

For example, we examine:

• What are the effects of colonialism today?

• How do people in these countries remember colonialism today?