Working papers and essays by THAC. They develop the Relational Systems Framework and apply it to leadership, security institutions, development and public debate. Each paper is published here to read and, with a permanent DOI, in the THAC Working Papers community on Zenodo.
© 2026 THAC GmbH · Author: Peter Urs Aeberhard · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Foundations
- Where This Came From – a preface to the series. Forthcoming.
- The Relational Systems Framework – the theory paper: five functions, four conditions and what emerges from them. Forthcoming.
- From Survival to Adaptation – how protective responses to threat move from people into relationships and institutions, and how they can become flexible again. Forthcoming.
Applications
- Strategic Leadership and Strategic Management in Complex Relational Systems – diagnosis, direction and organised learning under pressure. Basis of THAC’s training. Forthcoming.
- Trauma, Oversight and Legitimacy – a relational governance model for security institutions. Forthcoming.
- What Arrives Instead – development and peacebuilding as interventions in relational systems. In revision.
- Where the Weight Settles – function, displaced cost and feedback in the DR Congo and the Great Lakes region (short version). Forthcoming.
- Densely Governed, Weakly Connected – the full analysis of the Great Lakes region. In revision.
- Beyond MHPSS – trauma as a governance challenge in Somalia. In revision.
Essays
- Was Extremismus anbietet – und wie Gesellschaften ihn ungewollt stärken (German) – why extremist groups bind young people, and why reactions can strengthen what they seek to fight. Forthcoming.
Application: Africa Initiative
Two RSF test runs on African agendas and strategies, and the initiative Healthy Prosperity for Africa that grew from them. Africa Initiative →
Other publications
Addressing trauma as a missing element in security sector governance and reform: Perspectives on trauma-informed policing
DCAF – Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, 2024. Peter Aeberhard (primary author), Abigail Robinson, Dan Hales. Supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
- Question: why has security sector reform largely overlooked trauma – among those who serve, those they protect and the institutions in between – and where can reform address it?
- Useful for: police and security institutions, oversight bodies, ministries, donors and organisations working on security sector reform.
- What you can do with it: use its analysis to examine how an institution deals with stress, mistakes and harm, and how this affects legitimacy and public trust.
- Status: published study.
Study, 2024 (English, French, Spanish)
DCAF built on this study in 2026 with a practical guide by other authors: Abigail Robinson, Dan Hales and Emilia Stark, Guide on assessing and addressing trauma in the security sector. DCAF guide, 2026
If my life as a child soldier could be told
Junior Nzita Nsuami «Kadogo». Published by THAC (edition thac, Bern) in English, 2016, and German, 2017 (Wenn ich mein Leben als Kindersoldat erzählen könnte, translated by Liliane Gujer, ISBN 978-3-906821-01-6). French original: Si ma vie d’enfant soldat pouvait être racontée, Éditions Persée, 2012 (ISBN 978-2-35216-866-9); new edition Éditions du Parc, 2014 (ISBN 978-2-84280-252-3).
The life story of a former child soldier from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, forcibly recruited at twelve, who became a UN advocate against the use of child soldiers. It gives a voice to those who are usually spoken about. The THAC edition adds a chapter on why reintegration fails when trauma is left untreated, with a contribution by the trauma counsellor David Niyonzima (THARS, Burundi) on demobilised child soldiers. Proceeds support Paix pour l’Enfance.
Kindle and paperback: English · German
In the media
- Berner Zeitung, 31 May 2015. Jürg Steiner: «Manchmal zieht es mich in den Krieg». On Junior Nzita, the trauma counsellor David Niyonzima (THARS, Burundi) and the founder of THAC: why rebuilding war-torn states fails without addressing trauma. (German, subscription)
- Der Bund, 8 April 2016. Christof Münger: «Der Anwalt der Kindersoldaten». Portrait of Junior Nzita Nsuami and his book, published through THAC. (German, subscription)