Publications

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The Annual Report 2007/2008 sets out to provide information on how BICC is engaging throughout the world at the interface between development and peace in the fields of application-oriented research, counseling and capacity building. 
We are proud to have a very prominent guest author for this year’s Annual Report: Professor Dr. Hans Blix, Chairman of the International Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction, Stockholm, and a Member of BICC’s International Board. His editorial deals with the opposing trends in global security. The data section of the Annual Report, which provides information on worldwide trends in the field of defense expenditure, armed forces, imports of arms and militarization, confirms his view that we are experiencing “a revival of Cold War Politics without the Cold War - a Cold Peace if you will.” Blix defines the supreme objective as finding new approaches to abolishing all weapons of mass destruction. 
We want to contribute to this objective with our project work on small arms control as small arms are currently the most commonly used weapons of mass destruction. A special module is devoted to (safe) stockpiling and surplus weapons, as well as to marking and tracing small arms and ammunition. BICC also intensified its consultancy and training work on small arms control in Southern Sudan, where it advised the government on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DD&R) and organized workshops on the issue of small arms, thereby involving civil society and the media. 
BICC also offers an innovative approach to its database services. In 2007, the arms exports database (www. ruestungsexport.info) was extended to include an Internet-based maps component which provides additional multifaceted information. With its Resource Conflict Monitor (RCM), on the other hand, BICC has succeeded in developing a database on 90 countries which are rich in raw materials, but have only low or medium incomes. This database provides information on conflicts, resource management and involvement in international treaties over the last 11 years. The RCM is part of BICC’s research work in selected fields at the interface between development and security. 
BICC is project coordinator for the German branch of Fatal Transactions, an international campaign which supports the just and fair exploitation of natural resources in Africa. 
In Liberia, we worked within the framework of a European consortium to evaluate the UNDP program to reintegrate former combatants. 
BICC’s study on the connection between security technologies and jobs, based on the example of Dusseldorf Airport, represents a very different kind of consultancy project. Other BICC projects which come under the heading of application-oriented research include the projects on the United Nations peace missions, the contribution made by German development cooperation to peacebuilding, as well as the role of the security sector in authoritarian regimes in Central Asia. 
Finally, an international project sponsored by the EU involves a completely new topic area for the Center. The project sets out to study the example of the Horn of Africa and consider the influence of the activities of Diaspora communities on countries of origin and receiving countries as well as at transnational level. The decision to include migration and Diaspora research in its portfolio, means that for the first time BICC is now dealing with the field of tension between “migration, integration, development and peace“.