Dr. Christine Schweitzer, *1959 in Hamburg / Germany, has spent most of her professional life as coordinator in nonviolence and peace movements. She is a researcher at the “Institute for Peace Work and Nonviolent Conflict Transformation” (IFGK, www.ifgk.de) which she co-founded, part-time co-coordinator of the German organisation “Federation for Social Defence” (www.soziale-verteidigung.de), and editor of the bi-monthly magazine “Peace Forum” (www.friedenskooperative.de).
As an activist, she has been in the German peace movement since the early 1980s. Since the 1980s she is also a member of War Resisters’ International, and, since 2014, the chair of WRI.
She has co-founded and co-managed the international volunteer project “Balkan Peace Team” in the 1990s and worked as a Research and Program Director for “Nonviolent Peaceforce” most of the last decade. From that stems her interest in civilian peacekeeping – the protection of civilians in armed conflict by unarmed civilians being present on the ground – a topic she has published about.
Her other research interests include conflict transformation, nonviolence, civilian-based defence, strategies of peace movements, the Balkans and recently Syria, Russia and Ukraine. A list of publications can be found here: http://www.ifgk.de/vorstellung/mitarbeiterinnen-und-mitarbeiter/christine-schweitzer/
Christine holds a Masters in Social Anthropology from the University of Cologne and a PhD from the University of Coventry received for her thesis on Strategies of Intervention in Protracted Violent Conflicts by Civil Society Actors. The Example of Interventions in the Violent Conflicts in the Area of Former Yugoslavia, 1990 – 2002.
She resides in Hamburg, Germany. Email: [email protected].