Research and policy typically operate in different social spheres and are subject to different kinds of contingencies. In the cold war, peace research and policy operated in neighboring fields. They were subject similar limitations and stigmatisations. This changed in the 90s with the mainstreaming of peacebuilding and the numeric explosion of acters and activities. Peacebuilding became one policy field among many. Almost the same happended to peace research. Recent developments at the global political level and within many conflict prone states changed the conditions under which peacebuilding occurs (if at all): "shrinking spaces" was coined as an expression to describe the restricted freedom of movement and action mainly for civil society actors. The same may happen to researchers both in North and South. The paper looks at recent examples and analyses possibilities to maintain spaces for peace research and on how the latter may impact positively on the political legitimacy of peace policy.
