Applied Research

Research cluster

Historical and applied irenology, with a transdisciplinary approach.

GIMHRF runs a research cluster dedicated primarily to historical and applied irenology, understood as a strategic science of peace that articulates conflict analysis, the governance of contemporary tensions and the operational engineering of stabilisation mechanisms.

This approach rests on a core conviction: peace is neither a moral abstraction nor a mere philosophical horizon. It is a structured field of knowledge, methods and practices that requires a historical, normative, institutional and operational understanding of human societies.

Historical irenology

GIMHRF’s historical irenology studies the great intellectual, philosophical, religious, diplomatic and civilisational traditions that have thought through peace, mediation, coexistence and the regulation of conflicts across history. It interrogates the genealogies of peace, the ancient and contemporary architectures of governance, and the mechanisms that have enabled (or hindered) the stabilisation of plural societies.

Applied irenology

Applied irenology seeks to transform this knowledge into concrete capacities for action, prevention, mediation and strategic governance. It aims to produce tools directly usable in institutional, diplomatic, educational, religious and territorial spaces to respond to contemporary forms of conflictuality: polarisation, identity-based tensions, diffuse radicalisations, informational conflicts, fragmentation of narratives and crises of trust.

A transdisciplinary approach

GIMHRF’s research draws on a deeply transdisciplinary approach combining:

• irenology and peace studies;
• religiology and religious studies;
• political science and global governance;
• multilateral diplomacy;
• legal philosophy and normative theory;
• international human rights law;
• sociology of conflicts;
• political philosophy;
• spiritual diplomacy and institutional engineering.

This transdisciplinarity allows us to move beyond sectoral readings of contemporary crises and apprehend conflicts in all their complexity: historical, geopolitical, cultural, religious, legal, narrative and societal.

United Nations references

GIMHRF anchors this research in the major contemporary frameworks of the United Nations, notably:

• Chapter VI of the Charter of the United Nations on the pacific settlement of disputes;
• Resolution 2282 (2016) on Sustaining Peace;
• the 2030 Agenda and SDG 16;
• the Faith for Rights framework of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR);
• the multilateral diplomacy frameworks developed with UNITAR.