International Institute for Peacebuilding in Active Conflict

IIPAC is an international specialist institute for peacebuilding during and within active conflict. Through the Proxi-Temporal^TM Peacebuilding Framework, it examines how proximity, time, position and encounter shape our ways of knowing peace, and works with conflict-embedded universities and communities to develop ethical, locally grounded approaches in real time.

The Challenge

Active conflict transforms more than physical landscapes. It reshapes relationships, institutions and the ways in which people understand both violence and peace. Yet communities and universities living within conflict are often treated primarily as recipients of assistance or subjects of research, rather than as partners whose experience can guide peacebuilding.

Approaches developed from outside a conflict may overlook how time, proximity and position affect what can be seen, understood and achieved. When peacebuilding research and practice wait for more stable conditions, vital relationships may be lost, institutions further weakened and locally grounded ways of knowing peace overlooked.

Our Core Belief

IIPAC believes that peacebuilding must take place during and within active conflict—not only around it or after it.

Through the Proxi-Temporal^TM Peacebuilding Framework, we recognize that peace is understood differently according to where people stand, when they act and whom they encounter. We therefore work with conflict-embedded universities and communities as active partners in developing ethical, locally grounded approaches in real time.

This work does not assume that peacebuilding can immediately end the violence. It seeks to protect relationships, strengthen local institutions, preserve possibilities for cooperation and expand the conditions from which a just and lasting peace can eventually grow.