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About Us

The Austrian Centre for Peace (ACP) was founded in 1982 by Dr Gerald Mader and other like-minded people. We are located at Schlaining Castle in Southern Burgenland, with a second office in Vienna, the nation’s capital. Our work has earned us the status of UN “Peace Messenger” and a UNESCO “Prize for Peace Education”.

The ACP is an independent, non-profit and non-partisan organisation. It is engaged in research, education/training and practical conflict transformation. 

Research
In recent years, the environment and context for international actors engaging in violent conflict have changed considerably. The ACP research agenda aims to consider these changes and to focus on understanding possible consequences and shaping outcomes. Our research is also the basis for policy consulting. ACP publications include Policy Briefs and Reports. Our Peace Library comprises more than 30,000 monographs and is a valuable resource for researchers and the interested public.

Education/Training
Our Education/Training department focuses on two core areas: Peace Education and the training of civilian experts for peacebuilding and conflict transformation, who are or will be deployed in crisis regions. Every year more than 1,000 pupils participate in our peace education programmes, and hundreds of civilian experts are trained within our various training programmes like ESDC, IPT, ENTRi, EU AV, and the OSCE Summer Academy. On request we develop and offer tailor-made training courses. We also run the Peace Museum, which is located in the castle, with the aim to promote global values for a culture of peace, and we organise the annual Summer Academy, which is open to all.

Conflict Resolution

At the ACP, our conflict resolution team is dedicated to promoting peace through mediation and negotiation support, multitrack dialogues, and expert exchanges, focusing on the Middle East, Africa, and Eurasia. Our tailored peacebuilding initiatives aim to prevent conflict escalation and to facilitate conflict transformation in diverse settings, working with stakeholders from across divides and from all levels in society. 
Within Austria, we specialize in designing and leading inter and intracommunity mediation processes that seek to further contribute to peaceful coexistence. 
Whether at home or abroad, we are committed to transforming conflicts and facilitating peace processes that are adapted to the unique needs and circumstances of each conflict, guided by the values of human security and transformational peacemaking.

 

After a millennium full of blood and terror - when will mankind's old dream of eternal peace finally come true? The change of basic attitudes, the constant (scientific) work on the causes of conflicts and wars and the dissemination of a credible message of peace to the broadest sections of the population - that is what the ACP can do convincingly.

Erwin Schranz, former President of the Landtag in Burgenland