The world is seeing dramatic shifts in geopolitics as well as rising levels of complexity in armed conflicts affecting both global security and the ability of peacemaking efforts to be successful.

On 17 and 18 April 2024, the Berghof Foundation hosted a high-level peace conference in Berlin to bring together global experts from a variety of disciplines with peace and mediation practitioners to develop peacemaking tools that reflect the current complexity of war and conflict. 

Established peacemaking approaches and actors are facing apparent limits to their effectiveness. The latest events unfolding in Gaza, the failed international intervention in Afghanistan, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the devastating recent conflict in Ethiopia underline the need for more effective infrastructures for peace. In light of these challenges, the tools and approaches used to build peace must be renewed.

A changed and complex world needs a new research-backed framework for peacemaking, collaboratively designed by all relevant stakeholders in society committed to conflict resolution. The Berlin Moot aimed to deliver this new peacemaking framework.

The inaugural edition of the Berlin Moot pioneered new approaches to conflict resolution that will shape the future of peace in the 21st century by inviting high-level speakers and hosting panel discussions and several PeaceLabs, which offered the space to reflect on new approaches and entry points to tackle the multiple crises we are facing. The PeaceLabs also allowed for interdisciplinary and solutions-oriented discussions and high-level dialogues providing the peacemaking community with tangible results.

We are hoping to host the next edition in 2026.

The Berghof Foundation, headquartered in Berlin, is an independent, non-governmental and non-profit organisation supporting people in conflict to achieve sustainable peace. For more than 50 years, Berghof has brought people together in countries such as Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Somalia and Yemen, as well as several other places. Berghof is also involved in research, transitional justice and peace education initiatives.

The Berghof Foundation creates space for conflict transformation by offering advice, techniques and support that enable people and parties to find their own paths away from violence. To continue these efforts in the context of worsening escalation around the world, Berghof brought together global experts from a variety of disciplines with peace practitioners at a high-level peace conference in spring 2024. The Berlin Moot 2024 reflected on the current complexity of war and conflict through panels, talks and PeaceLabs to identify entry points for tackling the multiple crises the world is facing.