Gudrun Kramer is the Coordinator of the IICP Competence Pool.

She is a historian by education and wrote her thesis on cultural enemy images and cultural exchange. She studied at the University of Vienna (Austria), University of Bangalore (India) and University of Salzburg (Austria).

From 1997 to 1999 she worked in Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia for several international organizations (UN, OSCE) and non-governmental organizations in the fields of human rights, return of refugees, post-conflict reconstruction, and community development.

From 1999 - 2005 she was Program Director for projects related to conflict regions at the Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution - ASPR. She was also responsible for the training courses ("International Civilian Peace-keeping and Peace-building Training Program - IPT," and "Mission Preparation Training Programme - MPT") at the ASPR. Both programs are designed to prepare civilians for peace-building activities in crisis areas.

Based on this expertise, she was asked by the European Commission to contribute to the draft of the EU training programs for Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management.

Ms. Kramer is an expert on conflict transformation approaches. She has done extensive research in this field and through her responsibilities for projects of the Austrian Foreign Ministry on conflict transformation in the South Caucasus, Asia and Africa; she also has vast practical experiences.

Together with colleagues, Ms. Kramer has developed a specific approach to conflict transformation, taking into account not only the behavioural, but also socio-psychological, structural and cultural dimensions of conflict transformation.

Ms. Kramer is a lecturer/trainer in Conflict Transformation Theories, Theories of Civil Society, Concepts of Peace-keeping and Peace-building, Democratization Processes, Federalism as a Peace Structure, and Intercultural Communication.

She delivers lectures/trainings on a permanent basis at the:

• Diplomatic Academy of Vienna , Austria
• European University Center for Peace Studies, Austria
• Institute for International Relations, Colombo , Sri Lanka
• International Peace Support Command - Military Academy, Austria
• Network of Europeans for Electoral and Democracy Support, Great Britain
• Police Academy, Austria
• Santa Anna University of Advanced Studies, Italy
• OSCE Academy, Kyrgyzstan
• Université de Paris Sud, Faculté Jean Monnet, Paris
• Transcend Peace University, Cluj, Romania

Ms. Kramer has published various articles in her fields of expertise and has been speaker at numerous international conferences. She is a board member of the Austrian Peace Services, the European Network for Peace Services, and founding and board member of Transcend Austria . Transcend Austria conducts training in the "Transcend Method of Conflict Transformation" in German and offers facilitation and mediation for intra-social conflicts.