The Hans Günter Brauch Foundation (HGBS) supports two prizes on peace, ecology and the Anthropocene and of linkages between these themes.

The annual International Science Prize for Peace and Ecology in the Anthropocene (ISP-PEA) is supported by the HGBS in Germany.

The third International Science Prize is awarded on 9 October 2025 in Mosbach to one up to three scholars with a total prize money of 3000 €.

War impacts

Impacts of Wars on Food Insecurity

Impacts of Wars on Hunger

Impacts of Wars on Migration

• While the ISP 2023 addressed linkages between Climate Change on Conflicts,
• the second ISP 2024 explored Impacts of Wars and/or Climate Change on Food Security” and on Ecocide
• the third ISP 2025 will deal with Impacts of Wars and Global Environmental and Climate Change on Food Insecurity, Hunger and Migration since 1945 in the Anthropocene.

Based on the Call of 2 January 2025 the HGBS accepts until 31 May 2025:

• Applications by scholars with a PhD from any university globally
• Nominations by distinguished scholars and heads of departments and institutes worldwide and
• by publishers who have published books in English since 2020-2025 on the new theme(s);
• and globally by PhD Committees who have accepted and passed PhD dissertations and habilitations that have already been published as a books or are available as an unpublished manuscript.

In addition to the International Science Prize, the Global Jury of the HGBS ISP 2025 may award again:

• 1 to 3 International Recognitions for unpublished manuscripts on the theme:

The selected book covers indicate the wealth of scientific literature on minor linkages. However, there exists a lack of integration addressing both peace and security as well as ecological perspectives. The third call welcomes such wider and integrative perspectives of these two sets of causes and three groups of impacts.

The Anthropocene

The time focus of the analysis is the Anthropocene, the period of earth history that has started with the first testing of a nuclear weapon on 17 July 1945 in Alamogordo in New Mexico and with the first use of of two nuclear weapons in Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 and against Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. The term was coined on 23 February 2023 by the Dutch Nobel Prize Winner Paul J. Crutzen in Cuernavaca in Mexico.

The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), an official group of geologists, claimed in May 2019 that the Anthropocene has started with the Atomic Age.

Between 8 May and 2 September 1945 the Second World War has come to an end in Europe and in East Asia against Germany and Japan.

The Ecocide

According to Wikipedia (28 December 2024):

“Ecocide (from Greek oikos "home" and Latin cadere "to kill") is the destruction of the environment by humans. Ecocide threatens all human populations who are dependent on natural resources for maintaining ecosystems and ensuring their ability to support future generations.
The Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide describes it as "unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts."

Two existential threats to the survival of humankind
Since 1945 human actors have directly interfered into the Earth System by more than 2,056 nuclear weapons tests both in the atmosphere and underground by the USA (1,030), the USSR (715), France (215) and UK (45) and others which were identified in sediments even though the geological community has rejected in March 2024 that this has resulted in a new epoch of Earth History succeeding the Holocene (Brauch 2025).

Anthropogenic threats to Human Survival

• Nuclear Threat: Nuclear Testing and Atomic War that became known through the Sites of Nuclear Weapons testing and the destruction against Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Physical and Social Effects Global Environmental and Climate Change that was addressed by Natural Scientists since the 19th Century and discussed in the natural sciences since the 1970s, became a theme of Politics since the late 1980s and of Peace and Security since 2000.
• Both threats have individually caused:
  • Food Insecurity
  • Hunger
  • Migration.

However, wars and global environmental change and climate change are interacting and have become” threat multipliers”.

Methodology

For the analysis of the two sets of causes

Wars and Global Environmental Change:

• Monographic Case Studies
• Comparative Case Studies may exist

Both Causes have Different Effects:

HGBS Call on International Science Prize 2025

• In English
• In German
• In French
• In Spanish

Each scholar participating in this competition must submit an original text of research authored solely by the applicant in English that was published since January 2020.

• as a peer-reviewed book
• as an unpublished manuscript based on a PhD dissertation or habilitation.

If submissions are equal in quality the prize will be awarded to

• a female scholar or to
• a scholar working at an academic institution in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Plagiates will be excluded from the competition!

HGBS Press Release on International Science Prize 2025 (2 January 2025)

• In English
• In German
• In French
• In Spanish

A collage of events related to climate and weather (Image credit: NOAA) on:

• loss of glacial ice,
• wildfires,
• hurricanes,
• floods,
• and drought.

Climate change affects the environment in many different ways, including

• rising temperatures,
• sea level rise,
• rain variability and
• drought, flooding, and more.

These events affect things that we depend upon and value,

• like water and soil,
• agriculture,
• ecosystems,
• and wildlife,
• and human health.

Impacts of Global Environmental and Climate Change on Food Insecurity

Impacts of Global Environmental and Climate Change on Hunger

Impacts of Global Environmental and Climate Change on Migration