After years of efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC), former President Rodrigo Duterte was finally arrested by the Philippine National Police and transferred to The Hague. What at first glance appears to be positive news, on the other hand, demonstrates the lack of will and abject failure of Philippine politics and authorities to prosecute the former president on their own soil. While the arrest is a first step to accountability and justice, it is also a dramatic testimony to the…

Maha Kumbh is a major Hindu festival in India, noted as the largest human gathering by UNESCO. Occurring every 144 years, in 2025 it was held in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh (UP), with an estimated 600 million attendees worldwide. This article examines the symbols of the festival, their political significance, and the blending of faith and politics under the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. The focus of the study is on methodologies for achieving political goals, as opposed to…

February 24 marked the third anniversary of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Various options for peace are being debated internationally, often without focusing on Ukrainian perspectives and interests. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, PRIF researcher Clara Perras conducted a written Interview with Olena Zinenko, a Ukrainian feminist peace activist and researcher from Kharkiv who currently lives and works in Bochum. She is lecturer at Karazin Kharkiv National University…

Kenya has worked to position itself as a global and regional peace maker, however these efforts stand in contrast to its ability to handle peace internally. Continued political violence has impacted Kenyan governance, yet new school curricula remain largely silent, particularly on the 2007/2008 post-election violence and broader patterns of state repression. Despite total education overhaul, education in Kenya avoids addressing past conflicts instead using vague calls for peace. Drawing on…

In hindsight, the 2025 Munich Security Conference marked a pivotal moment. Once again the forum brought together decision-makers from around the world to discuss major global security issues, with widespread hope that it would set the stage for a sustainable peace process for Ukraine. Instead, the prospects for such a process have greatly declined, while the conference itself only further demonstrated the diminishing relevance of the ‘global West’. Originally established as a Military Security…

In recent years, many museums and universities have begun to address past colonial injustices by critically examining their collections of human remains, often leading to their restitution to their assumed countries of origins. Such efforts are usually framed as acts of recognition, reconciliation, and repair. However, the diverse difficulties and frictions that accompany restitutions often escape public attention. This post introduces some of such difficulties that need to be taken into…

Three years ago, in Ukraine, I was awoken at 4:45 am by a frightening noise unlike anything I had ever heard. I stared into the darkness behind the window and told myself: it’s not true, it’s not a war, it’s just military exercises. Yet the nightmare of Russia’s full-scale military invasion was real and continues to this day. Since then, Ukrainians have been standing, fighting, and defending themselves, resisting not only Russia but also prophesies of disaster and efforts to undermine support…

The Trump administration’s recent actions have left many uncertain about the prospects and trajectory of the Russo-Ukrainian war. False certainties and anxious interpretations abound. However, some clear tendencies have emerged from Trump’s first few months in office as well as from his last term. Europe’s leaders, while trapped between Trump’s geopolitical flailing, Putin’s ongoing war efforts, and a continent-wide surge in nationalist sentiments, have options at their disposal that could…

The Japanese government is currently preparing its 7th Strategic Energy Plan and released its draft plan for public comments in December last year. Reflecting on the war in Ukraine and the growing tension in the Middle East, from which Japan imports the majority of its crude oil, the draft plan emphasizes the importance of a stable energy supply and of close cooperation with industries to achieve decarbonization and energy transition. As the draft plan also states, renewable energy plays a key…

The US government under President Donald Trump has announced a comprehensive shakeup of the US development aid agency USAID. The talk ranges from restructuring or integration into the State Department to complete closure of the organization. Immediately after the announcement, USAID funding was frozen for an initial 90 days and thousands of employees and contractors worldwide are laid off. With the end of USAID as we know it, a fundamental upheaval in international development cooperation and…