Staff
Marc von Boemcken
Senior Management & Head of Research
bicc - Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies
Marc von Boemcken
Senior Management & Head of Research
Contact by phone
+49 228 91196-75
Biography
Since January 2021, Marc von Boemcken is the Head of Research at bicc. Starting his career at bicc as early as 2003, Marc has been involved in a wide range of research and advisory projects at the institute. Between 2005 and 2010 he coordinated the BMZ-funded project “Security, Armament and Development in Recipient States of German Arms Exports”, which is running to this day, and developed the Global Militarisation Index (GMI). In 2010 and 2011, Marc led the BMZ project “Commercialization of security practices in developing countries” and conducted field research in Timor-Leste, Liberia and Peru on the impact of private security companies on development-related factors. He was the co-editor of the annual Peace Report / Friedensgutachten in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Between 2015 and 2019 Marc directed an international research consortium with partners in Central Asia on the everyday "securityscapes" of marginalised groups in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. From 2018 to 2021 Marc coordinated the research project "Preventing radicalization in North-Rhine-Westphalia: How can the capacities of intermediaries be strengthened?" as well as (since 2019) the academic network "CoRE-NRW – Connecting Research on Extremism in North-Rhine-Westfalia". Besides working at bicc, Marc also teaches seminars at the Institute of Political Science and Sociology of Bonn University. Before coming to bicc Marc was trained as a reserve officer in the German Armed Forces (armored infantry) and worked with InWEnt Capacity Building International (now GIZ).
Research profile
Marc is interested in how human collectives deal with the problem of violence, conflict, and death. How do they organise themselves to attain a minimal degree of security? And to what effect? His research broadly falls into the field of (critical) security studies and often questions established normative assumptions on social order. It covers a diverse range of issues, from arms (export) control and global militarisation over the commodification of security, private military companies, and everyday security practices to efforts for countering violent extremism. Marc is also interested in theoretical questions surrounding conceptual imaginations of security, violence, and war.
- Critical Security Studies / Critical War Studies
- Everyday security practices
- Private military and security companies
- Non-state social orders, “rebel governance”, “global security assemblages”
- (German) Arms export control policy
- Relation between militarization and development
- Prevention of violent extremism
Project involvement
Current projects
Past projects
- Database on security, armaments and development in recipient countries of German arms exports
- Security, armaments and development in recipient countries of German arms exports
- Mercenary identities: The self-image of employees of private military-security companies in Iraq
- Commercial provision of security in development countries
- Research for the BMZ in select areas at the nexus between development and security
- Security, armaments and development in countries receiving German arms exports
- International academic conference “Challenges of organized violence: New research and potentials for conversion”
- The Peace Report - Friedensgutachten
- Security, armaments and development in recipient countries of German arms exports
- Reflection Group "Monopoly for the use of force 2.0?"
- Forms of local security in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan—The emergence of securityscapes
- Preventing radicalisation in North Rhine-Westphalia: How can the capacities of intermediaries be strengthened?
- CoRE-NRW - Connecting Research on Extremism in North Rhine-Westphalia (Phase 1)
From Osiris Portfolio